Ex-Sky Sports star Charlie Webster on beating abuse, sexism and a lethal sickness to be named MBE

Former Sky Sports pundit Charlie Webster is tougher than most. As she prepares to be honoured by King Charles, she opens up about her incredible journey

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Charlie Webster has been through more than most people can imagine. She overcame abuse, sexism and the class divide to reach the top of her game as a sports presenter.

Then in 2016, doctors gave her just 24 hours to live when a rare form of malaria left her in a coma. Here the broadcaster – who’s just been honoured with an MBE – tells Meg Jorsh about her journey so far…

Presenter Charlie Webster is not a woman who gives up easily. Just look at her collection of medals – including 16 marathons, three Ironman Triathlons and a 3,000-mile charity cycle from London to Rio.

She’s always been driven to succeed, even under the most difficult circumstances. At first, that meant breaking into the male-dominated world of sports broadcasting, despite a lack of support from those around her.

“I was picked on because I was northern,” she says. “I was picked on because I was working class. I was picked on because I was a woman.”

She soon proved the naysayers wrong, with an illustrious career that has included work for Sky Sports, ESPN and Channel 4. She even made history in 2014 as the first female boxing presenter.

“I took it on as if it was my mission,” she says. “To be a female in sport, to be a voice. But not just a voice as a woman, but also a voice that comes from Sheffield, with a teenage mum.

“No money, homeless twice as a kid. Like, literally was told that she wouldn’t be anything. I think that was very much a driver for me, of feeling like I didn’t have a voice.”

Then in 2016, she had to start again from scratch after a terrifying brush with death. Arriving in Rio after her bike ride, which raised thousands for the Jane Tomlinson Appeal, she collapsed from a lethal form of malaria.

Charlie beat the odds to survive, but spent six weeks in hospital and was left with post-traumatic stress disorder. She admitted soon afterwards: “I had to re-learn how to walk again. I kind of lost who I was, and I was in a lot of pain.”

These days, the 43-year-old is one of the world’s most successful podcasters, with hits like Unicorn Girl and the Emmy-nominated Scamanda. She released her first book, Why It’s OK To Talk About Trauma, in 2024.

So what keeps her bouncing back? A lot of it comes from a harrowing childhood that saw her abused, first by a violent bully of a stepdad from the age of seven, then by a predatory athletics coach at 15.

“I was brought up in a very unhappy household,” she says. “It’s almost like I had the best negative role models. I know it sounds awful, but I was determined to kind of, be everything that wasn’t.

“But I think some of it must be like, who I am innately and my character too. I hate this idea of ‘oh, people who’ve gone through adversity in childhood end up doing great things.’

“No, actually so many people don’t. I’ve had friends that aren’t here any more because of things that happened in childhood.”

One of her biggest motivators was to help her mum Joy escape the man who punched, kicked and verbally abused them. Incredibly, it wasn’t until 2018 that she was able to flee his clutches.

By that point, Charlie was already a high-profile Women’s Aid campaigner, working with the Government on the Domestic Abuse Act. It was signed into law in 2021, marking the first time children had been recognised as victims of domestic abuse in their own right.

She says: “I was working with them on the victims’ law. And at the same time, my mum was leaving my stepdad and there was hardly any help. It was so surreal, and incredibly frustrating.

“I was like, ‘if I can’t get support when I’ve got access to all this, how on earth can anybody get the help they need?’”

Now living in Los Angeles, the journalist was thrilled to learn she has been awarded an MBE, for her services to broadcasting and charities like Women’s Aid and Malaria No More.

But hilariously, she almost missed the message from the Cabinet Office, which arrived when she was on holiday in Hawaii. She says: “I checked my phone and then I listened to all these voicemails where it’s like, ‘hello Miss Webster. We’ve been trying to get hold of you.’

“It went from this like, elation to ‘oh no, I’m going to miss the deadline to accept it.’”

Charlie is now looking forward to a trip back to Blighty, where she will receive her medal from King Charles himself. “It kind of made me reflect to be acknowledged like that,” she admits.

But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from Charlie Webster so far, this won’t be the end of her story.

• Charlie’s new investigative podcast series SPLBERG, about a con artist who convinced a whole high school he was Steven Spielberg’s nephew, is out on Audible on June 25.