I’m A Celeb’s Alex Scott reveals the heartbreaking childhood that left her ‘living in fear’

Alex Scott is currently taking part in I’m A Celebrity, but away from the cameras she’s been incredibly open about the heartbreaking childhood she says left her “living in fear”. She’s described the years of trauma she, her mum and brother claim they endured before she became one of England’s most recognisable female footballers.

Credit: ITV

The former Arsenal and England captain grew up in East London, where she claims her family lived in a “toxic environment” dominated by her father, Tony. In her 2022 autobiography, she shared what she describes as years of alleged emotional and physical abuse suffered by her mum, Carol, as well as the constant fear she and her brother Ronnie lived with. Tony has denied all allegations.

Scott wrote that she would lie awake at night listening to her mum’s screams, claiming her dad’s drinking regularly triggered violent behaviour. She described him as “stupidly cruel”, and said he banned the family from hugging or saying “I love you”.

Speaking to The Times last year, she said those rules still affect her today: “If I want to show people love, I’ll do it by taking them out to dinner and paying.”

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A post shared by Alex Scott MBE (@alexscott2)

When she was eight, her mum told Tony to leave, a moment Scott says changed her life completely.

“Dad played no part in my life from then on,” she wrote.

She threw herself into football and later a media degree, going on to break broadcasting barriers as the first woman to present a World Cup for the BBC and later to host Football Focus. Alongside her success, Scott says she carried deep psychological scars. In 2018, she realised she was relying on alcohol to cope: “If I had any problems, I thought, ‘A drink will get rid of it’.”

She began therapy, which she now says she’ll “always” continue. On Loose Women in 2023, Scott again opened up about her past, saying she spent years both fearing and desperately wanting her dad’s approval: “I wanted to love my dad so much… but he had this dark side.”

She remembered instantly recognising the warning signs of violence: “Drink helped it come out a lot more… What my mum would go through, the terror, the helplessness… you’re just living in fear.”

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A post shared by Alex Scott MBE (@alexscott2)

Tony has rejected all claims, telling the Daily Express he was never violent: “I have no idea why she’s saying all this stuff. I was raised in a strict but loving Jamaican family and Alex should know what they are like. I taught her discipline, I did a lot to help her. Perhaps she is judging me by today’s standards, I don’t know.”

He added that he never “beat anyone in the family”, claiming that parents were simply “tougher back then”.

Scott has since said his denials were “another nail in the coffin”, explaining she wrote her book not to attack him, but to free her mum from years of silence.

“I always try to see the good in people,” she said. “But clearly he couldn’t see I still had love for him. I was, like, ‘OK, I’m done with you’.”

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Featured image credit: ITV, Instagram/@alexscott2