Lioness Jess Carter's alarming fear after first kiss with Germany's Ann-Katrin Berger
England's Jess Carter is loved up with fellow footballer Ann-Katrin Berger, but before they got together, Jess had never dated a woman.
The 27-year-old defender met Ann-Katrin when they both played for Birmingham City FC in May 2016.
Although they were teammates, they barely spoke for the first six months. "At first, I thought she was arrogant," Ann-Katrin told The Guardian."But the more I got to know her, the more I was drawn to her."
At the time, Jess was still living with her family in Barford, Warwickshire, but she was ready for independence.
By 2017, she wanted to move out, and found out Ann was looking for a housemate. In February, they moved in together in Solihull and quickly became close friends, bonding over their shared love of football and films.
Pizza, partying and a new mantra - How Lionesses celebrated reaching Euro 2025 Final
Jess Carter's defiant racism message after starring in England's Euro 2025 win
While their friendship blossomed, Jess didn't initially consider the idea of something more. She had just ended a relationship with a man and thought she was straight. That summer, while away at training, she found herself missing Ann-Katrin.
Curious whether there might be more than just friendship between them, she decided to take a chance and planned a night out. "A friend encouraged me, and I thought - if I don't try, I might regret it."
In August 2017, Ann-Katrin took Jess out on what she intended as a dinner date. But Jess was unaware of the romantic intention.
Jess said: "When she called it a 'date', I thought she meant as friends. Even when she paid, I didn't think twice - Ann's one of the most generous people I know."
Friends asked Jess how the evening went, but romance still didn't cross her mind, as she had never dated a woman.
A few days later, while they were relaxing at home, Ann-Katrin took the leap and kissed her. She admitted: "I was nervous. Jess had always seemed open-minded, but I'd also heard her talk about guys, so I wasn't sure."
They didn't talk about it right away, but after a second kiss days later, they had an honest conversation.
"I could sense something had changed," said Jess. "Ann isn't someone who dates casually - she only kisses someone if she's emotionally invested. I cared about her deeply as a friend, but I was still trying to understand my feelings."
Jess told Ann-Katrin she wanted to try, but needed time to be sure. She admitted: "I didn't want to rush into something if it was just a phase, or risk hurting her."
Though Ann-Katrin was more certain early on, Jess soon caught up. Things progressed naturally and quickly, and, within a few months, they were saying "I love you."
Last year, the pair announced their engagement with a heartfelt social media post. They revealed the news with a selfie of the couple in front of the Statue of Liberty in New York City after the culmination of the Women's Super League season.
In a post on X, the couple posed alongside one another for a selfie, with Carter's caption reading: "7 years down forever to go" along with red heart and ring emojis.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
31 minutes ago
- BBC News
Esme Morgan says Sheffield football friendships are 'enduring'
England defender Esme Morgan has said that the friendships she formed while playing junior football in Sheffield have "carried her through" her international now 24, played on a boys' team for Ecclesall Rangers in the Sheffield & District Sunday League until she was said the Lionesses' celebrations in London on Tuesday after winning Euro 2025 on Sunday were "surreal".The team are "so proud" of the older women who have made it possible for the current squad to represent their country and play professionally, she added. The former High Storrs School pupil thanked her childhood coach Martin Windle "so much" for everything he taught her when she played for Ecclesall Rangers."I love Martin to bits," she said."He did such incredible things for me and all the young kids he coached because he just had this infectious enthusiasm, passion, love for football, and he spread that to all of us."She said "as the only girl on the team" it would have been easy for the club to dismiss her or treat her differently but "Martin just welcomed me with open arms"."He always encouraged me and just spread his love for the game to me and that has really carried me through." Many of the boys she played with at Ecclesall Rangers have been in touch to say how proud they were and her advice to girls wanting to play football was to "just enjoy it"."That's all I ever did. Ecclesall Rangers were my team and they were my mates."Everyone's journey is different but as long as you're enjoying playing, that's going to take you such a long way."Keep listening to your coaches and following your love for the game and eventually opportunities will come along and you just have to take them where you can."But for the most part, follow your love for football and enjoy playing."Because if nothing else, it brings you incredible friendships."Morgan joined Manchester City's academy as a teenager and now plays her club football in the added: "I made friendships that are going to endure a lifetime and that's the most special part of it." Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Spectator
7 hours ago
- Spectator
Wonderfully corny: Burlesque, at the Savoy, reviewed
Inter Alia, a new play from the creators of Prima Facie, follows the hectic double life of Jess, a crown court judge, played by Rosamund Pike. As a high-flying lawyer with a family to care for, she knows that 'having it all' means 'doing it all'. When not in court, she skivvies non-stop for her indolent husband and her useless son, who telephones her at work to ask why his Hawaiian shirt isn't in the fridge where he left it. She races home, finds the shirt, irons it back and front, and then starts to prepare supper for eight guests. Husband and son pretend to help by Frisbeeing the dinner plates around the kitchen and tossing pots of taramasalata to each other. A spillage of gunk lands on the kitchen floor and Jess promptly kneels down and wipes it clean. Why does she slave for these hopeless spongers? Hard to say. The dinner party is a great success and Jess ends up dancing on the table in her scarlet frock and high heels. When the guests leave, her drunken husband tries to seduce her and she fakes an orgasm to make him stop. The perfect end to a perfect evening. Next, we see her robed and wigged in court where she specialises in reprimanding uppity male barristers whose tone displeases her. 'Oh the power,' she giggles to the audience. She's assigned to a major drug case involving multiple lawyers one of whom, Rafferty, she dated briefly. Swept up in her romantic memories, she invents an excuse to over-rule a senior KC in the hope that Rafferty will find her manner exciting. What a strange moment. A female judge manipulating court procedure in order to pursue a personal sexual fantasy. Sometimes Jess seems like a caricature designed to defame female judges: she's touchy, vain and openly biased, and her ambition in court is to advance the interests of women rather than to discover the truth and administer justice. In other words, she's as corrupt and blinkered as the all-male cabal she hopes to replace. After work, she likes to 'wash the judge out' by meeting her legal cronies at a karaoke bar in Chancery Lane. She twerks the night away singing feminist anthems by Shania Twain and Tina Turner. At home, she fantasises about life as a rock star and she poses in her legal finery like a pop goddess. This image is supposed to be amusingly human but it's also alarming. Are all judges power-crazed narcissists like Jess? As a parent, she tends to get too closely involved in her son's life. When he kisses a girl at a party, she convenes a family summit and interrogates him about the encounter while her husband asks supplementary questions from the sofa. What a nightmare for the poor lad. At this point, the story finally starts and Jess has to deal with an allegation of sexual assault made against her son. The play develops into a gripping whodunnit and the evidence is neatly orchestrated to keep the truth hidden from view. The ending includes a couple of bombshells that turn the story on its head. Well worth the wait. Brilliant, in fact. A pity the play proper didn't start sooner. Burlesque is a glamorously sexy musical based on the Christina Aguilera movie. The plot feels like a Cinderella replica. Ali is a smalltown girl with a big voice who moves to New York in search of fame. She lands a waitressing job at the Burlesque Lounge but she's prevented from singing by her female colleagues who don't want to be upstaged. Ali seeks help from the owner, Tess, who happens to be her biological mother. As you can tell, the plot is deeply corny and so are the characters. Everyone at the Burlesque Lounge is a frustrated wannabe who yearns for love and happiness. But so what? Musicals should be corny and this show has bundles of charm and humour. Tess employs a camp manager, Sean (Todrick Hall), who improvises gags about adulterous couples at Coldplay concerts. He's also a brilliant comedian and dancer. Sean and Tess fear that the cocktail bar may be repossessed by her evil ex-husband Vince (George Maguire) who snoops around Tess's office looking for compromising material. When he finds it, he sings a song that celebrates his villainy. 'Who's the cat and who's the mouse now?/ Whose fire will I start to douse now?' These succinct, clever lyrics are also the work of Todrick Hall. At one point, he leans over complaining of a backache and brings the show to a halt. 'Sorry, ladies and gentleman, but I'm carrying the entire musical on my back.' A wonderful night. The principal actors are fantastic. The lights, the music and the stagecraft are masterful. And although the material is raunchy it's never explicit, let alone smutty. Sheer class.
Spectator
7 hours ago
- Spectator
The Ashes just got spicy
You don't have to look hard to find swaths of sports fans around the world who dislike England – England's men's teams that is. The women are a different matter. Now, surprise surprise, the Australians have come to the party. If they ever left. The trigger this time is Ben Stokes's surly behaviour to the Indians at the end of the fourth Test when Washington Sundar and Ravi Jadeja chose to bat on to pick up their centuries, rather than march off for the draw that Stokes wanted. All that was left was sledging: 'Fucking hell, Washi, get on with it,' said Harry Brook, who never shuts up; 'If you wanted a hundred you should have batted like it earlier,' said Jofra Archer. Why they shouldn't have wanted to collect their centuries is beyond me though. This was all a bit rum since England had just been using as a consultant a Kiwi coach called Gilbert Enoka, who had worked with the All Blacks for years and was the guy behind the famous 'no dickheads' approach. But none of this has gone unnoticed Down Under, where the kraken is waking and the Aussies are ramping up Ashes tension ahead of England's upcoming visit. Brad Haddin, the famously confrontational former Test keeper, said: 'I think they are going to start the Ashes on nice terms but when push comes to shove, we are going to see some real combative Test cricket.' Mitchell Johnson, the terrifyingly fast left-armer from the 2013-14 series, was suitably scary: 'Sledging only works when you're dominating. Right now, England aren't. They haven't won an Ashes series in Australia since 2010-11. Their Bazball model has some punch, but it's flimsy when conditions swing. Maybe talking tough is a cover.' But he admitted: 'Let's not pretend Australia are choirboys. I had plenty to say when I played – and copped plenty back.' Well, who would have thought it? A spicy Ashes series: can't wait. They're a tough bunch those Lionesses. Ashes tough indeed. Not to be messed with. Watch Chloe Kelly sardonically thanking everyone who wrote her off, shortly after winning that thrilling final with her stupendous, prancing penalty. They played hard football, they didn't shirk a tackle or a collision, but they played with a joy in the game (and its rewards) that is markedly absent from much of the men's game. Instead of Marcus Rashford or Casemiro picking up hundreds of thousands a week to play football but looking as if they would rather do community service in a sewage farm, the women's tournament saw Kelly, the unknown teenager Michelle Agyemang, Leah Williamson, the match-saving goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, Alessia Russo and all the rest living the best days of their lives. You hear a load of guff about sports people being role models, but these Lionesses really are: talented, hard-working, supportive, energetic and never giving up. Proper England, you could say. Now what, though? The brilliant Sarina Wiegman, after two major titles with England and one World Cup final, will pick up the honorary damehood she so deserves. Though what else will happen if they go on to win the World Cup in two years in Brazil (and they certainly could) is anybody's guess. She could be made an honorary queen, I suppose. You rather hope that Thomas Tuchel is picking her brain once in a while. Fond farewells to the Tour de France on terrestrial TV. This last edition was the end of ITV4's involvement, and a damn pity too. Ned Boulting and David Millar are one of the great commentary double-acts in any sport. Sure, times change and commercial interests win out, but we should be careful if terrestrial TV loses all its jewels. And the Tour de France is the brightest jewel of all.
