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North Wales Chronicle
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Chronicle
Gary Lineker breaks silence on Match of the Day exit
The former footballer added that he 'didn't like the damage' done by his controversial tweeting. The 64-year-old outgoing MOTD host will leave the corporation after fronting its coverage of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Lineker, who has worked as a presenter on the programme since 1999, told the BBC's Amol Rajan: 'It's time (to leave). A post shared by BBC SPORT (@bbcsport) "I've done it for a long time, it's been brilliant, it's been great… Well, perhaps they want me to leave… There was a sense of that." Lineker added: "I always wanted one more contract. It was their preference that I didn't do Match Of The Day for one more year so they could bring in new people, so it's slightly unusual that I would do the FA Cup and the World Cup, but, to be honest, it's a scenario that suits me perfectly." Last year, the director of BBC Sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, said he would be 'hugely missed' on MOTD when his contract extension was announced. I felt BBC wanted me to leave Match of the Day, says Gary Lineker A trio of presenters, Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan, will replace him on MOTD. Lineker was also grilled about the furore in March 2023 over his tweet comparing the then British government's asylum policy with 1930s Germany. The former England striker was briefly taken off air, and other sports journalists and presenters walked out in solidarity, before he returned to fronting MOTD. Lineker said: 'I don't regret saying them publicly, because I was right – what I said, it was accurate – so not at all in that sense." "Would I, in hindsight, do it again? "No, I wouldn't, because of all the nonsense that came with it… It was a ridiculous overreaction that was just a reply to someone that was being very rude. "And I wasn't particularly rude back." The presenter also said the BBC should 'have ignored it, and it would have been fine', and called the corporation 'silly' for its 'overreaction' in taking him off air. His tweets, which sparked a row about BBC presenters expressing political views on social media, led to enhanced rules for BBC flagship presenters, including a ban on making attacks on political parties. A post shared by BBC SPORT (@bbcsport) Lineker has been the BBC's highest-paid on-air talent for seven consecutive years and was estimated to have earned £1.35 million in the year 2023/24, according to the corporation's annual report published in July. Recommended Reading When he stepped down, it was reported that he was open to staying on at MOTD but was not offered a new deal for the show. He will also host BBC Sport's coverage of the FA Cup in the 2025-26 season, continue with the MOTD Top Ten podcast and the BBC will also host The Rest Is Football podcast, featuring Lineker, on BBC Sounds. The BBC declined to comment on Lineker's remarks.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Traitors' Jake Brown reveals first luxury spend after winning £47k
The Traitors winner Jake Brown says the first thing he plans to do with his prize money is show his wife Shannon some appreciation. Now he's £47,300 richer — after splitting the £94,600 prize pot with fellow Faithful Leanne Quigley — Jake can't wait to whisk his wife away. "We're not really decided where we want to go, somewhere relaxing," he told Yahoo. "Where there's no punishments, no murders, no Claudia. Just find a pool somewhere — a nice hot holiday." Despite rocketing to overnight fame on the BBC show, Jake has vowed he will stay grounded but would love to continue to raise awareness for cerebral palsy. The Traitor Hunter was the favourite to win and had made a huge impact on the game, having got his nickname on the BBC show for identifying Linda as a Traitor five seconds into the game, when she turned her head after host Claudia Winkleman said "Traitors". In the final, Jake said he had been "desperate" to become The Seer to be able to see someone else's identity in the game. However, he was delighted how it turned out and said the role of The Seer turned out to be "too much power". Jake never suspected Charlotte of being a Traitor until Frankie uncovered her true identity in the role of The Seer, changing the whole direction of the game. Admittedly, the TV personality said it "pulled my heartstrings" finding out that finalists Frankie and Alexander were also Faithful but he said "paranoia" tore the four Faithfuls apart at the end game. Jake took Yahoo behind the scenes of his experience on The Traitors. What is next for you after winning The Traitors Jake? I just want to be able to take my wife on holiday and just show my appreciation to my wife first. Yeah, we're not really decided where we want to go, somewhere relaxing — where there's no punishments, no murders, no Claudia's! Just find a pool somewhere, a nice hot holiday! I think a bit of downtime would be good and give some money back to my mum and dad in terms of showing my appreciation to them as well. That's probably first on the agenda, and then afterwards just kind of see. Keep my feet on the ground and any opportunities that come out as a bonus. Do you see yourself building a career in TV or do you want to go back to your day job? I'm not really sure, to be honest with you. It would be nice to continue to raise awareness for cerebral palsy and disability in general. I'm very passionate about sports and football, so if I could get involved in any capacity to do with football and sport — that'd be amazing. There's probably not enough representation of disability on TV, so if I could be that person that would be amazing. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BBC SPORT (@bbcsport) What was it like being able to represent people with cerebral palsy and also other hidden disabilities as well on screen because that was just incredible? Yeah, I felt honoured to be able to spread awareness, to have a platform to talk about my cerebral palsy in such an open environment and to get such positive feedback as well, that was just really touching. I have had so many lovely messages from people that have been saying things like they're inspired by my story and they have either got cerebral palsy themselves, or a son or daughter and feel hope that their kids have a future. The whole point of why I want to spread awareness is it's not a barrier. It doesn't close doors, it opens doors. So I feel very honoured and proud to be able to talk about it because it's such a hidden disability, I don't let people know about it a lot and they don't get spoken about enough. To be able to actually let people know that actually it's OK to be disabled and it's not a negative, it's actually a positive, and it makes me who I am as a person. Growing up as a kid, I was ashamed of it to some degree. And to me, I'm now very confident in my own skin, and if I can preach that message to other people no matter how old they are, that actually be proud of disability and it makes you who you are then that would be great. You were an incredible traitor hunter, right? Did you realise you would be really good at spotting Traitors? I've been labelled with that name now, The Traitor Hunter! I didn't think going into the game. I remember sitting down and watching season two with my wife, Shannon. I remember saying, 'I would be good in this game.' I just felt it in my bones that I'd be good on this game. I love mystery thrillers. I'm very competitive. I did think I'd be good at it but then going into the game and spotting Linda within five seconds. I couldn't believe my luck. But it was more challenging than than what I thought. I didn't realise how hard it would be because you don't know the people who are playing with you, it's hard to know [when they are lying]. I'll know if my wife's lying or my mum. But how to know when Minah or Freddie's lying, it's hard to learn their signs because I don't know them. You're trying to get to build as many relationships with people as quick as possible and because I think the more you get to know people on a personal level, the easier than it is to know when they're lying and when they're not. So it is a very challenging game. After the final, how did it feel finding out that both Frankie and Alexander were Faithful? Was that gutting? Yeah, I felt, really really bad. I felt very guilty because obviously now I know that they were all Faithful. It does pull your heartstrings, especially with Frankie saying things like mother to mother to Leanne. Obviously had me and Leanne knew that we were all Faithful, we would have ended the game as a four. But the paranoia of the game just takes over, especially with the whole twist with the whole Seer thing and not knowing everyone's identity. You could see obviously at the end everyone decided to banish again because If you're not 100% confident that someone is a Faithful, you can't just end the game. My fear was that I'd end the game with people that were Traitors and I'd look like a fool. So I had to just go with the gut and just stick to what I believed in, and I believed who Leanne was a Faithful and I had doubts on the other two. Sadly I had to go with my gut and they did the same, obviously Frankie tried to vote for myself and Alexander tried to vote me out. It's just a shame that we didn't know in hindsight. If I could have spoken to Frankie more, get to know her more on a personal level. I think that adds suspicion. The people you don't get to speak to enough, you don't have that extra connection with; it's harder to trust them. You don't speak to them. If I could change one thing, it would be to go back and speak to Alexander and Frankie more, get to know them more as people. You get so immersed in the game and it's 100 mile an hour all day. It's hard to kind of get a chance to speak to everyone properly. It's constantly accusations and there's so much going on with missions and round tables. It's very difficult. What did you think of The Seer twist and finding out Charlotte was a Traitor? Those two things were like big bombshells. I enjoyed The Seer twist. I was desperate to be The Seer now, but I'm so glad now that I wasn't because I think it was actually too much power. It would be interesting to see how it would have worked had a Faithful picked another Faithful or if a Traitor got The Seer power. To find out Charlotte a Traitor, up until that whole The Seer moment and Freddie had voted for her, I had her in my 100% Faithful category. She was a Faithful for such a long time. That's one of the things that makes the game so hard, you could be the ultimate Faithful and then you can be recruited. It changes the whole game. That's why you can't really get complacent. You've got to build trust with people every day. You can't rely on I trusted them yesterday because every day is a new day. It took me by surprise finding out Charlotte was a Traitor. Watching it back, she played an amazing game especially as she was pretending to be Welsh as well. What did you make of Leanne's big secret, were you surprised to find out she was a soldier? Walk me through that moment. I was really shocked when she said she worked in the army but I remember doing missions and seeing her like sprint up up the hill with a statue on her shoulders, and I did think, 'Oh wow, Leanne's very fit.' She's smashing it. I thought maybe she goes to the gym all the time. Getting to know her more personally hearing about my story with the boys and IVF and how strong she has been as a person, she's such an inspiration as a person. That part of it doesn't shock me because now I know she's in the army, it makes sense. It's the character that she is and the personality. But at the time when she said, because of the way she dresses as well it's not typical army fashion, like she was dressed as a Barbie doll in her pink suit. That was her tactic to put people off her scent. I think sometimes she played on the whole blonde but she was very screwed on, she played the game very smartly. From the beginning, did you think that you and Leanne would be there standing there together at the very end of the show? Why or why not? Never in a million years did I think I'd get to the end. I thought I'd be lucky to last a week, especially with how opinionated and vocal I can be. That's when I realised I wasn't going to be a Traitor. I really wanted to be a Traitor going into the game because of how vocal I am. I thought I would struggle being a Faithful and being so opinionated. So when I found that I was going to be a Faithful, I thought this will be quite challenging. But I did think I'm going to be true to myself, don't go home any regrets, so I thought I'm going to go in there, be me, and if I felt something, if I had an opinion, make sure I air it. Obviously a lot of luck involved and skill in getting Linda out. I befriended a Traitor in Minah as well. There's so many different factors that go into lasting so long. Do you think it's better to be a Faithful or a Traitor? I think it's easier to play the game as a Faithful because you don't really need to pretend to be anyone else. I know Charlotte pretended to be Welsh and Leanne lied about her job but you can just be yourself. You don't have to put an act on, you can just be you. But I do think it is harder to win the game as a Faithful. One you can't win by yourself, you need to have the trust in someone else. It's out of your control. You can't decide who gets murdered. You have no control over really anything. That's why I quite liked The Seer thing because it brought some control to the game. So as a Traitor, you can you can be a puppeteer and pull the strings. Even though I wouldn't change the outcome for the world, it would have been quite nice to be a Traitor as well to see the other side of the curtain. In hindsight it's easier to say this as well, I think I would have played the game well as a Traitor. But yeah, I'm glad I was a Faithful, I'm glad the outcome was the outcome, because I'm now £47,000 richer! Catch up on The Traitors on BBC iPlayer.
