Mollie, 33, grew up in Surrey. The youngest of three sisters, she was a talented skier who was picked for Team GB at 17. ‘Being dyslexic, sport was a great escape from school,’ she says. But her dream was a career in music. She successfully auditioned for The Saturdays and spent eight years as one-fifth of the band, touring I arenas, selling more than eight million records and living for a period in LA. Currently, the band is on a hiatus. ‘I miss seeing the girls and I really miss performing,’ she says. ‘We’re still all in touch all the time’ – her former bandmates were the first people she told about her engagement to Stuart.
After a stint on the 2017 series of Strictly Come Dancing, she took a career swerve into radio. She now presents a Radio 1 weekend lunch-time spot with Matt Edmondson, as well as a separate morning show: ‘I live and breathe what I do,’ she says. She’d also love, one day, to do more TV presenting.
For Stuart, it has been a challenging year, playing cricket to empty stadiums, with teams confined to Covid-secure bubbles. ‘It was as strict as you could possibly be,’ he says. Our mealtimes were sort of like school exams, with the tables two metres apart. But we were well looked after.’
He had sessions with the team psychologist to prepare for playing to empty stadiums. Normally, he says, ‘there’s an amazing energy that hits your body when you run out onto the field. It raises every thing about you, the awareness, the sharpness, the competitive spirit. I wondered if all of that would disappear. But it didn’t. I’ve got an inner fire that takes me where I need to get to.’ He calls his mental routine getting into ‘warrior mode’.
Stuart has had an extraordinary career that includes taking his 500th Test wicket last July in front of his father, Chris – but does he think bowling out eight Australians for 15 runs in a Test that won back the Ashes for England in 2015 was a crowning moment for him? ‘To have done it at Trent Bridge, my home ground, I felt so comfortable in those surroundings, with my family, friends and supporters, on the ground that my dad loved so much. Everyone was there for the performance of my life; it was pretty special.’
