Former Lioness Mary Earps has apologised for the “hurt” her controversial book release caused and told ITV News things got “out of control”.

Her autobiography caused a huge stir in November when extracts highlighted her relationship with England boss Sarina Wiegman and fellow goalkeeper Hannah Hampton.

In an exclusive TV interview, she told ITV News Central: “I’ve reached out to people involved and taken accountability and apologised for the hurt and the impact that the book would have had on them and people around them.

“I think the big conversation really that was important to me was with Sarina, we had an opportunity to meet face to face and have a conversation.

“It was a really positive conversation. I’m really grateful that we were able to do that in person.”

Earps wrote in her autobiography that she told Wiegman that she was ‘rewarding bad behaviour’ by selecting Hampton.

The 32-year-old retired from international football ahead of last year’s Euros but is still playing club football for Paris Saint-Germain. It is very rare for current players to write about conversations with those still in football.When the book was released in November, Earps followed it up with a series of what she now sees as “defensive” interviews.

She said her family “held up a mirror” to her and she is now more calm.

In 2024, Earps was named the best goalkeeper in the world, after saving a penalty in the World Cup final a year earlier Credit: PA

She said: “It’s been a crazy, crazy time. Especially November and December was pretty difficult.

“The way I describe it is it’s like my first experience of cancel culture and I wouldn’t recommend it to people. Jokes aside, November, December were tough, but ultimately it’s off the back of my book, which is my name, my face and I take full accountability for that.

“It wasn’t necessarily about the fact that I shared my experiences, it was more in the way that some of it was expressed. The way I articulated myself at times, decisions made around the book as well. Not just the book itself. So, yeah, there’s a bunch of things.

“It kind of went out of control really quickly. I think all you can do from that point is learn and grow. I take my responsibility as a role model really seriously.

“You can’t just be maybe front and centre and follow the joys of spring when things are really good. Of course life brings tough lessons sometimes, I think it’s important to be authentic and accountable in those moments as well. I think that’s what true role models should be.

“They should be able to take responsibility when things don’t quite go to plan, or when there are things that they could have done better in the situation, and that they’ve learned lessons from.”

Mary Earps won the Golden Glove award at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023. Credit: Zac Goodwin/PA Images

In 2024, Earps was named the best goalkeeper in the world for the second year running. She helped England win the Euros in 2022 and saved a penalty in the World Cup final a year later.

She retired ahead of last summer’s Euros when it became clear that Hampton was first choice.

Earps told ITV News Central: “I wrote this book at a really emotional point in my life. The emotions were running really high.

“In my head it made perfect sense to kind of then go from there and dive headfirst into into a book that, you know, I thought I would share my experiences and it would help people.”

She adds: “But ultimately the impact that the book had, it went in a certain direction. I think that, sometimes that’s where intention doesn’t matter.

“You know, you have to look at the impact and, yeah, I think it was really ambitious to write a book whilst I was still playing, I think I knew that it would be a risk at the time anyway.

“I think being more removed and being in a place where I’ve been able to reflect and really have some tough conversations, really lean on my friends and family where they’ve held the mirror up to me at times, but where they’ve also picked me up when I’ve needed it at times.

“Now I can understand the reaction of certain parts, and now I can see why people saw things a certain way.”

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