Laura Woods has revealed how keeping her pregnancy secret from ITV colleagues and millions of television viewers during Euro 2024 was a ‘nightmare’.
The 37-year-old presenter was battling morning sickness during the tournament in Germany and described feeling constantly ‘knackered’ and ‘exhausted’.
The football host also told of colleagues ‘getting a bit suspicious’ when she kept refusing to go for drinks after work, and ‘sucking in your belly’ when on camera.
Woods faced intense speculation on social media about whether she was pregnant which felt like ‘the world is talking about it because of how sensitive you are to it’.
She eventually revealed the news of her first baby with former Love Island star Adam Collard a week after Spain beat England in the final, posting a photo on Instagram of her French bulldog and a sonogram on July 21 with the caption: ‘Hey, baby’.
Sports presenter Laura Woods is expecting her first child with Love Island star Adam Collard
Presenter Laura Woods with Scotland fans at Marienplatz square in Munich on June 14
The ITV Sports presenter took to Instagram on July 21 to share that she is pregnant
Woods explained how she kept her pregnancy secret at the Euros while speaking to The Times ahead of her nightly Paris Olympics round-up show for Discovery+.
She said: ‘The Euros were a nightmare. It was constant – the morning sickness was quite difficult to battle and I was exhausted all the time.
‘It didn’t matter how much sleep you actually got, you’d still be knackered. At least there were rest days when I was able to just chill out in my (hotel) room.’
Speaking about fobbing off colleagues who suggested post-work drinks, she added: ‘You have to keep that going for the whole month. People were getting a bit suspicious.’
Woods, who insisted that she was now feeling ‘much better’ also said she kept the pregnancy secret from most co-workers, ‘unless they really needed to know’.
She continued: ‘I would have liked to keep it quiet for a little bit longer but I really felt like I couldn’t any more and now I’ve done it, it’s a relief.
Laura Woods works for ITV at the Euros final between Spain and England in Berlin on July 14
Laura Woods with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the Euro 2024 final on July 14
‘A lot of people were speculating online while I was in Germany, and I didn’t enjoy that. I couldn’t do anything about it and I felt quite exposed having to front it up on telly.’
Woods hit the headlines when she was pictured jumping around with Scotland fans during the tournament, but added: ‘You’re sucking in your belly and you want to go and rough and tumble with the fans, but you have to be a bit more careful about things like that too, which is the opposite of everything I’m used to.
‘It all meant I couldn’t enjoy the pregnancy that much, but now I’m through that phase and I can finally feel excitement.’
Woods said she has faced significant trolling online but had now ‘turned away from social media a lot more because you’re happier without it’.
She also had to deal with another form of intimidation when an obsessed female football fan called Harneet Kaur left her in ‘real fear’ during a two-year campaign of harassment.
Laura Woods, pictured presenting for TNT at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on April 17
Woods and Collard first went public with their relationship in October last year
Kaur, 25, branded Woods a prostitute in vile messages, targeted her with derogatory comments online and sent a string of unwanted food deliveries to her home.
The Liverpool fan who went by the name ‘Krazy Harns’ online also threatened to kidnap and kill Woods’ dog and arranged for a Bible and a sexual health testing kit to be sent to her house. Kaur was jailed for 14 months in February.
She was forced to pull out of covering a boxing match between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia after suffering the gruesome injuries. But she made her return to television at Euro 2024.
Describing what happened in a post on Instagram, Woods revealed that she was lucky that the falling glass missed her eye.
Laura Woods suffered a freak injury in an accident at a holiday cottage in May
Laura Woods, pictured at the Sport Industry Awards at Evolution London in May 2022
She wrote: ‘Just wanted to explain my absence from the telly for a little while, to be totally transparent and avoid any speculation. I had an accident last weekend at a holiday cottage.
‘I swung a pillow and hit a large, glass lampshade hanging from the ceiling above me, which shattered and cut my face and arms, but luckily missed my eye.’
Woods thanked Collard for ‘being my hero that day, acting so quickly and not leaving my side since and to his family for taking care of me in a time when I was petrified’.
Woods and Collard first went public with their relationship in October last year and have been on a series of holidays together this year in addition to their recent cottage stay.
They travelled to Mexico in April after also going on a group skiing holiday together in the French Alps with friends two months earlier.
