Alex: My Lionesses love affair

BBC star tells of her heartbreak

-  NICOLA METHVEN

BBC star Alex Scott has spoken for the first time about her secret long-term relationship with fellow Lioness Kelly Smith.

Football Focus host Alex, 37, says she fell "madly and deeply in love with striker Kelly as a young player.

She will speak candidly about their romance in her new memoir, How (Not) To Be Strong, and her subsequent heartache when they split - but says she wouldn't change a thing.

At the time, both women had demons. Kelly was in the grip of alcoholism while Alex's traumatic upbringing with her controlling father left her vulnerable.

When it came to writing the chapter which revealed that fellow England ace Kelly had been her first love, the deeply private Alex said she nearly couldn't bring herself to do it.

But speaking at the book launch in Hackney, North East London, this week, Alex said: "I went back and forth on whether I'd be writing the chapter. I want to tell you everything. I thought I'd be cheating you all if I didn't put that in.