{"id":266472,"date":"2025-11-16T18:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T18:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/266472\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T18:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T18:29:09","slug":"sad-truth-about-kirsty-gallachers-downfall-friends-tell-me-why-shes-fallen-by-the-wayside-and-how-her-ex-despises-her-and-divulge-colourful-social-life-and-intriguing-uber-rumour-writes-katie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/266472\/","title":{"rendered":"Sad truth about Kirsty Gallacher’s downfall: Friends tell me why she’s fallen ‘by the wayside’ and how her ex ‘despises’ her and divulge colourful social life and intriguing Uber rumour, writes KATIE HIND"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirsty Gallacher<\/a> cut a rather sad and lonely figure last week as she walked, alone, into High Wycombe Magistrates\u2019 Court, where she was banned from driving for six months.<\/p>\n

But life, it seems, hasn\u2019t been kind recently to the once-glamorous star of Sky Sports News.<\/p>\n

Dressed in a simple navy jacket, her face free of make-up, the only clue to Kirsty\u2019s celebrity status on Wednesday was, perhaps, her black \u00a31,400 Gucci Marmont bag.<\/p>\n

Her latest ordeal was a hefty sanction for driving five miles an hour over the 30mph speed limit near her home in Maiden\u2019s Green, Berkshire, on April 1.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2018growing very fast\u2019.<\/p>\n

It is just a fortnight, too, since she was the victim of an attack in London\u2019s Soho. As she walked to her car after presenting her radio show, a man dressed \u2018all in black\u2019 was said to have \u2018kicked her like a football\u2019 in an incident still under investigation by the Met Police.<\/p>\n

No wonder, then, that the emotional mother of two took aim at the judge for having \u2018no empathy\u2019 and described herself as \u2018broken\u2019 during last week\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

\"As <\/p>\n

As Kirsty Gallacher arrived at High Wycombe Magistrates\u2019 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 \u00a31,400 Gucci Marmont bag<\/p>\n

She said to the Daily Mail: \u2018I\u2019m just an ordinary mum with plates spinning, I do everything.<\/p>\n

\u2018With my health as well, it\u2019s going to be very difficult.\u2019<\/p>\n

She told the court that she couldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Friends say her humiliation \u2018ran so deep\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018Kirsty has had a terribly tough time recently,\u2019 one associate told me. \u2018Her life hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018Others in her generation of female television presenters, such as Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates, have gone on to do so well \u2013 they are both presenting Match Of The Day \u2013 but Kirsty has fallen by the wayside somewhat. Perhaps she wasn\u2019t as talented as the others \u2013 but there are other factors.\u2019<\/p>\n

None of those factors were evident during Kirsty\u2019s 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 \u00a320,000-a-year St George\u2019s School in Ascot, Berkshire, where notable alumni include Princess Beatrice.<\/p>\n

\"Kirsty, <\/p>\n

Kirsty, right, with Match Of The Day presenter Gabby Logan, who has been a source of strength for her friend<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Home Videos and had a stint anchoring the Ant Vs Dec segment on Ant & Dec\u2019s Saturday Night Takeaway.<\/p>\n

While she still earns \u00a3150,000 a year presenting on Gold Radio, and she admitted to the court she has \u00a380,000 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.<\/p>\n

The mass, an acoustic neuroma, causes tinnitus \u2013 a persistent ringing in the ear \u2013 which affects her sleep and was made worse by the 3am starts. But friends say that\u2019s not the only reason she has been less in demand.<\/p>\n

Some point to Kirsty\u2019s colourful social life as a contributory factor to her troubles. \u2018She loves to have a good time, she loves a lunch and a late night,\u2019 one said. \u2018She\u2019s a very sociable person but will often be the one at the end of the night who still wants to keep going. She\u2019s great fun. If you hang around Soho for long enough you\u2019ll see her enjoying herself.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Retired <\/p>\n

Retired England rugby player Paul Sampson\u00a0\u2018doesn\u2019t have a good word to say\u2019, about his ex-wife (pictured together in 2011) says one source<\/p>\n

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\u2019 community service.<\/p>\n

Apparently Kirsty has also told friends she no longer uses Uber, although her reasons are unclear. Perhaps, as one source points out, that\u2019s why she was desperate to avoid another driving ban. I have also heard rumours that the relationship between Kirsty and Sampson has been \u2018very difficult\u2019 since their acrimonious divorce in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u2018Paul doesn\u2019t have a good word to say about Kirsty,\u2019 says one of my sources. \u2018Things are really bad between them. He lives as a bachelor, dating all kinds of women and enjoying himself when his kids aren\u2019t around.<\/p>\n

\u2018The split broke Kirsty and it hasn\u2019t got much better since. Now the kids are older, the exes barely speak. He despises her.\u2019<\/p>\n

Today, she is dating another former rugby player, Darren Clayton, 39, who she was introduced to by friends Gabby and Kenny Logan.<\/p>\n

The two are said to have discussed marriage and her friends are \u2018relieved\u2019 at their relationship after fearing she could have ended up with a \u2018total wrong \u2019un\u2019.<\/p>\n

Gabby has been a source of strength for Kirsty, and the two women went walking together in Richmond Park earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u2018She\u2019s a wonderful woman and friend and if anyone knows how hard navigating the showbiz industry can be, it\u2019s Gabby,\u2019 says one friend. \u2018Kirsty\u2019s mates just want her to be smiling again.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kirsty Gallacher cut a rather sad and lonely figure last week as she walked, alone, into High Wycombe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[97,96,59,89266,50,31762,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-266472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-kirsty-gallacher","tag-news","tag-uber","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}