Alex Scott father has hit backs at her claims that he bullied and abused her during childhood, insisting that he was strict – but not violent.
Alex Scott : Father | Abuse | What happened to | Dad
Alexandra Virina Scott MBE is an English sports presenter, pundit, and former professional footballer who mostly played as a right-back for Arsenal in the FA WSL.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alexandra Virina Scott | ||
| Date of birth | 14 October 1984 | ||
| Place of birth | London, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) | ||
| Position(s) | Right-back | ||
She made 140 appearances for the England national team and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
At club level, Scott has had three separate spells with Arsenal, punctuated with a season at Birmingham City in 2004–05 and three years in the American Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) with Boston Breakers. She scored the winning goal for Arsenal in the 2007 UEFA Women’s Cup Final.
Alex Scott father
Alex Scott’s father has hit backs at her claims that he bullied and abused her during a traumatic childhood, insisting that he was strict – but not violent.
The BBC football pundit describes her father Tony Scott as a ‘controlling violent drunk’ who was ‘stupidly cruel’ and that she and her brother would frequently hear him beating their mother – with one incident so violent that she believed that she had died.
On one occasion she recalled how he beat them and made them throw their toys away insisting that life under him has left her so traumatised that to this day she is unable to hug her mother Carol or brother Ronnie.
Alex, 37, was comforted by Holly Willoughby after breaking down in tears on ITV’s This Morning as she spoke about life under her father prior to him walking out on her mother and leaving the family home in east London when she was seven.
But speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Mr Scott, 63 vehemently denied the allegations and said he could not understand why Alex is portraying him in this way.
Abuse
ALEX Scott’s estranged father has hit out after she claimed in her new memoir that he “bullied and abused” her.
The football pundit and former Strictly star has alleged that Tony Scott was “stupidly cruel” when she was a young child.
On Monday, Alex broke down in tears as she talked about her book to Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning.
However, Alex’s father Tony has now hit back and insisted he was a “strict” dad – but not a violent one.
Speaking to the MailOnline, he has vehemently denied her allegations and said: “I have no idea why she’s saying all this stuff.
“I was raised in a strict but loving Jamaican family and Alex should know what they are like. I taught her discipline, I did a lot to help her.”
He added that he was “never violent”, saying: “I never beat Alex or anyone else in the family or did anything like that.”
Alex’s memoir, called How (Not) To Be Strong, details her rise to fame as a professional women’s footballer.
She was eight years old when she was scouted by Arsenal.
What happened to
Alex Scott said she has been left in fear of her life by trolling and racist abuse, which has taken the pundit and former footballer to some “dark places”.
The 37-year-old, who played for Arsenal and England and had a key role on the BBC commentary team during the Lionesses’ winning run in the Women’s Euros, said she received death threats last summer after it was incorrectly reported that she was to replace Sue Barker as the presenter of A Question of Sport.
“That was at a level that I was scared for my life”, she told the Times. “I was scared to leave my house to even go to the shop. That’s the stage that we’d got to – that, oh my gosh, someone black might be replacing a national treasure could cause such hatred.”
Scott said she turned to alcohol for a short while in an attempt to block out the trolls and also sought therapy.
“I take lessons from what’s happened to me. I wouldn’t be the person I am without all this,” she said.
Then, later in the summer of 2021, she found herself under attack over her Tokyo Olympics coverage when retired crossbench peer Lord Digby Jones criticised her pronunciation and suggested she take elocution lessons.
Scott responded – tweeting: “I’m from a working-class family in east London, Poplar, Tower Hamlets and I am PROUD” – and a backlash against Jones followed, but the experience took its toll.
Dad
Alex Scott broke down in tears as she recalled her troubled childhood growing up with an abusive and violent father on Monday’s This Morning.
But the former Lioness, 37, admitted that discussing her traumatic past in interviews to promote her memoir How (Not) to Be Strong was the ‘hardest part.
Despite writing about her distressing formative years in the book, she claimed to not have spoken it out loud – and began crying when Phillip Schofield read a segment.
When the former children’s presenter asked Alex whether it was ‘difficult to write’, she took a moment to regain her composure while filling up with tears.
She said while bawling: ‘The hardest part is, I didn’t write that chapter to shame my dad. I wanted my mum to be free.
‘I want her to believe she’s a role model and move forward and i write in the book she still thinks she’s a coward. She’s anything but.’
Alex – whose father has never been pictured – recently confessed that before her parents separated when she was seven years old, both she and her brother would frequently hear their father beating their mother – with one incident so violent that she believed her mother had died.
Also Such was the level of control that her father inflicted that Alex was banned from showing any kind of affection towards her family members, admitting that to this day the trauma has stopped her from being able to hug her mother Carol or brother Ronnie.