Jill Scott reveals her private anxiety battle, exciting wedding plans and footballing future

I'm a Celebrity winner and former Lioness Jill is engaged to partner Shelly Unitt

Footballer Jill Scott rose to fame as part of the 2022 England Women's Euro squad, which saw the Lionesses lift the trophy as European champions.

Jill, 36, announced her retirement from football in August and has since been working as a TV pundit, as well as running her Manchester-based coffee shop, Boxx2Boxx Coffee, which she owns with her fiancée Shelly Unitt.

In our exclusive interview below, I'm a Celebrity winner Jill talks to us about her and Shelley's exciting wedding plans, her hopes for a future in football coaching and she also reveals the anxiety she suffered when playing professionally.

Jill, who has joined Zizzi's mental health campaign alongside campmate Owen Warner, made the surprising confession that she avoids going on social media after commentating on men's matches due to the negative comments she receives. "It makes me quite sad,' she told us.

Congratulations on your engagement to Shelly! Have you set a wedding date?

Ah, thank you. No, we haven't yet. I think it's just because everything has been so busy. We've got some time after the summer together and then hopefully we can get some plans in place.

Especially since the jungle, we've been like passing ships to be honest, because Shelly has got the coffee shop as well. But hopefully we're going to improve that life-work balance after this summer.

What type of wedding would you like: a big celebration or smaller ceremony?

Not too big, I think just family and friends. Maybe to go abroad and then just come home and have a massive party. Yeah, we do talk about it but it's just actually nailing down that date at the minute.

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You mentioned your coffee shop – are you quite involved in that?

Well, I've only been able to go in once every couple of weeks, just because I've been so busy, but once the summer's done with [I'll go more].

I think we'll get a lot of customers supporting the World Cup. People like to come in and pick up a signed picture of the girls. I'll get the girls to sign some pictures. After the World Cup I'll definitely be putting my name down for some shifts!

What do you do to relax and get some me-time?

I think people think I'm this massive coffee drinker, but I do like to go for a coffee to catch up with friends and family, so that's usually what I do. That's my way of relaxing and switching off.

Tell us about the mental health campaign you're involved with…

On the mental health side, I feel there's been a lot of people struggling in recent years, especially since Covid, so whenever there's a campaign on helping people with mental health problems it's nice to say that you've experienced things as well.

Me and Owen sat down for a chat at Zizzi and the main part was 'let's put our phones away'. Owen was talking about the pressures of his job, and I was talking about the pressures of playing football.

You can come across to people as quite chilled, but if you actually say, 'Look, there were times in my career that I was very anxious,' if people can relate to it, then they're more open to talking about it. I think it's so important that we talk about how we're feeling.

I think campaigns like this are brilliant. People always look after their physical health don't they, but sometimes you can't tell if people are struggling mentally, so to give people little tips and help them with their head, it's nice to be involved. 

You've suffered from anxiety yourself…

It was probably more so in my years of playing. I feel that people think that you get more and more experienced so you won't get nervous, but sometimes with experience comes pressure because there's pressure on you to perform. People put this expectation on your level of performance.

In my last year of football I was playing in a different position, and I definitely felt a lot more anxiety around that. I was trying to relate it to if someone had a change of job, you probably do doubt yourself a bit. You doubt your ability because it's something new that you haven't really done before. Obviously, someone's put belief in you but that can raise anxiety.

I remember we had a game and there were millions of people watching and I was playing in this new position. I just remember really overthinking it, and definitely feeling a lot of anxiety.

Do you find being on social media affects your anxiety?

I think social media can bring about anxiety. I'm quite good at keeping off it, but it also makes me quite sad that after I've done a bit of punditry, I do stay off social media because you know that you're going to get negativity around being a female commentating on the men's games.

It's quite sad that you have to put these things into place, where you're like, I won't access that tool for 24 hours because you know you're going to be getting stick.

There are more women than me who have led the way like Alex Scott and Karen Carney, and they've led the way in inspiring the next generation to be pundits.

There is definitely a negative side around it, but sometimes you can't help what happens to you in life and I've been very fortunate compared to what a lot of people have gone through in their lifetimes. I think coping strategies are so important.

What is your advice for young girls in football?

I do feel sorry for the next generation because we are living in a world of social media, so my advice is to make sure that you don't seek validation from people outside of your circle.

So long as your coach or your manager gives you some feedback and your teammates are like, 'Oh you've played well today', just accept that. Just keep your circle and the people that matter for your validation tools.

Also, it makes me sad sometimes with social media because a kid will ask for a picture and they'll scribble their face out – it's because they think they have to reach these certain levels of beauty. It's trying to say to people that it's what's on the inside that matters.

I was on the telly living in a jungle for four weeks. I'm sure I looked absolutely horrendous, but I didn't really care because to me that's not what matters. It's not about your appearance; it's about how you treat people and how you are around people.

Zara Hamilton, age 10, plays football and really wants to know... What did it feel like winning the Euros?

It was the best day of my life. From being around her age, even younger, I won a few little trophies with my local team. I just loved that feeling of winning.

To think that we were actually crowned European champions. It was a long journey for me – I did 10 international tournaments and I lost nine of them, so to finally get that win at the end.

I think for the next generation there's probably a message in there: to keep going. You do lose along the way but it's what you've learnt from those losses. But yeah, it was the best day of my life, by a mile.

The Lionesses have the World Cup coming up… will we see you as a pundit?

Yeah, I'm doing a bit of behind-the-scenes stuff which I'm excited about – a bit of fun stuff with the players. It's called Lionesses Live which they've done for the last few years. I don't know how 'live' it will be because obviously we're in Australia.

It's going to be fun, even seeing the girls when I'm there. I'd definitely have FOMO (fear of missing out) if I wasn't over there for the tournament. I'll do a bit of punditry as well. I'm very lucky this summer to be involved.

Can they go all the way and win?

Yeah, I really do think so. I think they will be the best prepared team in terms of the FA, the staff - and they're a great group. They're very humble, very grounded, but also very, very talented, so I think they have a good mixture in that squad.

I know people are talking about the players that we've lost like Beth Mead, Leah Williamson, Fran Kirby, really big names, but that presents an opportunity to the younger generation and I feel like they're ready for that challenge.

Will you work as a coach in the future?

Yeah definitely. I think it would be a shame for all those years of experience not to help the next generation – I love being on the grass, I love coaching.

I'm hoping to start in September just a couple of days a week but I'm just not ready to go back into that full on football schedule. I did it for such a long period of my life and I am enjoying doing different things.

Do you still train a lot with football?

Not as much as I should be! I was doing a bit because I did a couple of charity games, like Soccer Aid.

I need to get back into a routine. At the moment, I'll hit it for a few weeks and then I won't be very good for a couple of weeks. I'm always on the go, always on the move.

I've got an appearance to do today, and I think it involves six hours of rollerblading! I'm not hitting the gym but still doing stuff that's active. I used to rollerblade when I was younger so I'm really looking forward to it.

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