BLONDE bombshell Laura Woods channelled her interior Pamela Anderson by sporting a daring high-cut swimsuit in our unique photoshoot.
Talking to Fabulous’ Superstar Editor Kelly Allen, the ITV Sports activities pundit 35-year-old sports activities presenter revealed the best challenges she’s needed to overcome in her profession.
Laura Woods seems crimson scorching as she channels her interior Pamela AndersonCredit score: Mark Hayman/New Group Ltd
Laura reveals a factor or two about blazing a path in what was a historically male-dominated areaCredit score: Mark Hayman/ Information Group Ltd
Laura arrived to the shoot trying fresh-faced – regardless of getting residence from Glastonbury Pageant simply hours earlier than.
“I’d by no means been to Glastonbury earlier than,” she says. “I knew it was going to be cool however I didn’t understand how cool — it was superb.
“We couldn’t get out final evening although, it was carnage. I ended up strolling for an hour down this nation lane at nighttime carrying all my baggage. I received residence at 5 o’clock this morning!”
Nevertheless, it’s good coaching for when Laura will type a part of ITV’s presenting group for the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup.
Whereas the event is going down in Australia and New Zealand, Laura will probably be in England reporting from the studio with a really anti-social time distinction.
“We’ll get our work finished, then hopefully sit within the solar and have a bit of nap and revel in the remainder of our day. That’s the optimistic method of taking a look at it,” she says.
The joy surrounding the event is an indication of how massive the ladies’s sport has change into, boosted by the England women lifting the Euro 2022 trophy at Wembley final yr.
“I’ve all the time discovered girls’s soccer to be actually accessible. I really like that about it,” she says.
“Typically in sport, we get a bit separated from the superstars and I don’t really feel like we’ve got that separation within the girls’s sport.
“While you go to the video games, it’s actually totally different to males’s soccer. It’s fairly family-orientated and the environment on the whole is actually enjoyable and welcoming.
“The usual is rising rapidly as the remainder of the world catches up, and I’ve been excited to be part of it. We simply get wonderful pundits and the exhibits are enjoyable.
“The largest praise that I may pay is that after I flip as much as any sport, the manufacturing, the enter… the whole lot is strictly the identical as it will be for a males’s soccer sport — it’s the identical stage of professionalism behind the cameras as it’s in entrance. It’s finished very effectively.”
I used to be a part of a rugby group that was blended, however I used to be one of many solely women within the membership
Laura Wooden
Laura is especially happy that it’s turning a complete new era of ladies on to taking part in sport.
“There wasn’t a women’ soccer group after I was at college — in the event you wished to play soccer, you’ll tag together with the boys, and that wasn’t all the time allowed,” she says. “I used to be a part of a rugby group that was blended, however I used to be one of many solely women within the membership.
“You all the time felt a bit of bit such as you’re taking part in a boys’ sport, reasonably than your individual sport.
“That may be fairly off-putting if you get a bit older and change into extra self-conscious about being a woman working round with the boys.
“It’s so totally different now. My little sister is 14 and she or he is a part of a women’ soccer group. It’s so totally different, however so regular.
“Everyone who works in girls’s soccer needs it to be like that. They don’t need it to really feel prefer it’s a token gesture. It’s only a sport that we wish to play and we additionally wish to watch.”
The Lionesses are set to kick off their first match on July 22 towards Haiti – who does she assume would be the stars of the event?
“Spain will all the time do effectively, in my view,” she says. “Germany is unquestionably all the time a hazard. USA, regardless that the group’s getting a bit of bit older, they’re fairly far forward of different nations by way of their improvement.
She provides: “With England, we’ve got quite a few accidents — the timing is sort of heartbreaking.
“However the England group has lots of power — our bench is all the time stacked stuffed with expertise — so I do have this sense that though we’re going to overlook lots of massive gamers, there will probably be a coming-of-age of others, like Lauren James.
“You’ve seen a little bit of her already, however she’s going to be a famous person. There’s one thing about her that could be very, very particular.”
It was unbelievable — I’ve by no means felt something like that. It was simply such a aid
Laura Wooden
Laura is aware of a factor or two herself about blazing a path in what was a historically male-dominated area. In 2020, she joined talkSPORT’s flagship breakfast present, co-hosting alongside Ally McCoist from 6am to 10am.
She’s since gone on to scoop a number of awards for her protection, together with Finest Speech Breakfast Present on the ARIAS in 2021, earlier than lately deciding to step down. Her final present aired on June 28.
“I actually tried to not cry doing the announcement, as a result of I simply didn’t wish to let the emotion take over,” she admits. “It was a very exhausting determination [to leave] however these hours are brutal, and I felt prefer it was the fitting time.
“Individuals say it’s necessary to exit on a excessive, and the breakfast present is in an ideal place in the intervening time.
“The final time I spoke to Fabulous in 2020, I’d simply began on the present and I used to be feeling swamped.
“It was in the midst of Covid and there was no precise sport to speak about. It was the most important problem of my profession, and of my life on the time.
“I used to be residing by myself and I felt very remoted, very lonely and like I couldn’t present the world what I may do with that present. I didn’t have any of the instruments I wanted, however I discovered to work by means of it.
“Then sport got here again. It was unbelievable — I’ve by no means felt something like that. It was simply such a aid.”
She definitely is leaving on a excessive after successful over their 3.6 million listeners, who have been anxious about her changing seasoned professional Alan Brazil.
“I positively assume it’s made me a extra assured particular person and introduced me to the place I’m now,” she says. “It’s such a cliché, however simply being your self is your greatest power.
“It’s the one factor you will have that separates you from anyone else, so having that point in that area to develop into myself and be my very own particular person was a present that I didn’t know I used to be being given on the very starting, so I’ll miss it loads.”
ITV’s protection of the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup begins on Thursday July 20.
Laura is rather more confident and assured in contrast now as she has grown olderCredit score: Mark Hayman/ Information Group Ltd
ITV pundit Laura Woods offers recommendation for gamers within the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup 2023Credit score: Getty