My stalker made me consider what I post on social media

Steph McGovern talks about the importance of keeping her personal life private

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AN OBSESSIVE stalker who targeted TV presenter Steph McGovern has left her much more careful about posting details on social media about herself.

The former BBC Breakfast TV business presenter and host of Steph's Packed Lunch, which ran from 2020 to 2023, says she no longer posts messages about where she will be filming and has always kept her family out of the spotlight.

"I made a conscious decision not to say (on social media) where I was before I was there. I tend to normally say after the event where I've been and what I'm doing," says McGovern, 43, who lives in the north east with her girlfriend - who is also in TV - and their five-year-old daughter.

"Social media is such a poisoned chalice. It's an amazing way to authentically talk to your audience and the people who've got you where you are.

"But I find the pressure to post quite stressful. How much do you give of your life? I have a kind of love-hate relationship with it."

"My family have not chosen to be in the public eye," she continues. "I don't want them to be exposed to what is essentially quite a pressurised environment.

McGovern's own stalking experience went on for around two years.

"Somebody thought they were in a relationship with me and they kept messaging me. I didn't think anything of it. I thought, it's just a viewer who's messaging me and then he started turning up at things."

He would message her on Twitter, where she used to post details of where she would be filming at particular times.

"Then he wrote to my dad and my dad rang me, saying 'Who's this fella?' The letter had all his details in, so I had his address. It wasn't like cutout letters from a newspaper trying to threaten me. He was a fantasist who thought he was in a relationship with me.