Kirsty Gallacher cut a rather sad and lonely figure last week as she walked, alone, into High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court, where she was banned from driving for six months.
But life, it seems, hasn’t been kind recently to the once-glamorous star of Sky Sports News.
Dressed in a simple navy jacket, her face free of make-up, the only clue to Kirsty’s celebrity status on Wednesday was, perhaps, her black £1,400 Gucci Marmont bag.
Her latest ordeal was a hefty sanction for driving five miles an hour over the 30mph speed limit near her home in Maiden’s Green, Berkshire, on April 1.
It was, however, her fifth motoring offence in eight years (including a previous two-year ban for drink-driving). And the problems mounting for Kirsty, 49, are not limited to her lapses behind the wheel.
In a plea to the court for leniency, she told the judge that a benign tumour in her ear canal, diagnosed in the summer of 2021, is ‘growing very fast’.
It is just a fortnight, too, since she was the victim of an attack in London’s Soho. As she walked to her car after presenting her radio show, a man dressed ‘all in black’ was said to have ‘kicked her like a football’ in an incident still under investigation by the Met Police.
No wonder, then, that the emotional mother of two took aim at the judge for having ‘no empathy’ and described herself as ‘broken’ during last week’s hearing.

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As Kirsty Gallacher arrived at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, dressed in a simple navy jacket, her face free of make-up, the only clue to her celebrity status was, perhaps, her black £1,400 Gucci Marmont bag

She said to the Daily Mail: ‘I’m just an ordinary mum with plates spinning, I do everything.
‘With my health as well, it’s going to be very difficult.’
She told the court that she couldn’t afford to pay for taxis in the event of a ban, as she is the sole provider for her two sons, Oscar, 18, and Jude, 15, from her previous marriage to retired England rugby player Paul Sampson.
Friends say her humiliation ‘ran so deep’ that she tried to cover her face with her coat when she left the court. It is, by any account, quite the fall from grace. Indeed, those close to Kirsty have been concerned for a while now.
‘Kirsty has had a terribly tough time recently,’ one associate told me. ‘Her life hasn’t panned out quite as she may have expected. She told the court how hard things are for her and, while some might question whether she really is that hard done by, she once had so much work coming her way.
‘Others in her generation of female television presenters, such as Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates, have gone on to do so well – they are both presenting Match Of The Day – but Kirsty has fallen by the wayside somewhat. Perhaps she wasn’t as talented as the others – but there are other factors.’
None of those factors were evident during Kirsty’s privileged upbringing. The daughter of golfing legend Bernard Gallacher, she grew up on the exclusive Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water, Surrey, and went to the nearly £20,000-a-year St George’s School in Ascot, Berkshire, where notable alumni include Princess Beatrice.

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Kirsty, right, with Match Of The Day presenter Gabby Logan, who has been a source of strength for her friend

Her career as a golden girl of TV appeared to be 24-carat. Having started on Sky Sports News, she spent 20 years with the broadcaster while also fronting high-profile shows such as Kirsty’s Home Videos and had a stint anchoring the Ant Vs Dec segment on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.
While she still earns £150,000 a year presenting on Gold Radio, and she admitted to the court she has £80,000 in savings, the bitter truth is that the work has dried up. She left Sky Sports in 2018, and her last full-time TV role was her GB News breakfast show, which she left in November 2021 after symptoms from her benign tumour made it impossible to continue.
The mass, an acoustic neuroma, causes tinnitus – a persistent ringing in the ear – which affects her sleep and was made worse by the 3am starts. But friends say that’s not the only reason she has been less in demand.
Some point to Kirsty’s colourful social life as a contributory factor to her troubles. ‘She loves to have a good time, she loves a lunch and a late night,’ one said. ‘She’s a very sociable person but will often be the one at the end of the night who still wants to keep going. She’s great fun. If you hang around Soho for long enough you’ll see her enjoying herself.’

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Retired England rugby player Paul Sampson ‘doesn’t have a good word to say’, about his ex-wife (pictured together in 2011) says one source

Little surprise then that she failed a roadside breath test in 2017, when she was pulled over in her BMW X4 at around 11am. She was arrested, banned from driving for two years, and given 100 hours’ community service.
Apparently Kirsty has also told friends she no longer uses Uber, although her reasons are unclear. Perhaps, as one source points out, that’s why she was desperate to avoid another driving ban. I have also heard rumours that the relationship between Kirsty and Sampson has been ‘very difficult’ since their acrimonious divorce in 2015.
‘Paul doesn’t have a good word to say about Kirsty,’ says one of my sources. ‘Things are really bad between them. He lives as a bachelor, dating all kinds of women and enjoying himself when his kids aren’t around.
‘The split broke Kirsty and it hasn’t got much better since. Now the kids are older, the exes barely speak. He despises her.’
Today, she is dating another former rugby player, Darren Clayton, 39, who she was introduced to by friends Gabby and Kenny Logan.
The two are said to have discussed marriage and her friends are ‘relieved’ at their relationship after fearing she could have ended up with a ‘total wrong ’un’.
Gabby has been a source of strength for Kirsty, and the two women went walking together in Richmond Park earlier this month.
‘She’s a wonderful woman and friend and if anyone knows how hard navigating the showbiz industry can be, it’s Gabby,’ says one friend. ‘Kirsty’s mates just want her to be smiling again.’