FORMER England international and Lioness Jill Scott has shared details of where she received her MBE and it wasn’t at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle – it was the post office sorting office in Warrington.
Speaking on Radio 4 yesterday, Sunday, and choosing her eight tracks on Desert Islands Discs, the 36-year-old who lives in Great Sankey told host Lauren Laverne how she received the honour.
The former Everton and Manchester City player, who was crowned Queen of the Jungle in I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here at the end of last year, was awarded an MBE for services to football in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List.
She was due to go down to London in March 2020 but the country went into national lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic just 24 hours before her big day.
Jill said: “I was so honoured to receive an MBE.
“My phone rang and I thought it was a hoax.
“They’d been trying to get hold of me for months and I nearly missed the invitation!
“We went into national lockdown on the Tuesday and I was due to collect my MBE on the Wednesday.
“I received a postal slip to collect a parcel and I had to go to the sorting office where they gave me a package.
“When I opened it, I said ‘Oh, it’s my MBE!’
“I didn’t think I was going to be receiving it at Warrington’s sorting office!”
Jill spoke about her football career and winning the Euros in 2022 and how much she was looking forward to the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand which kicks off on Thursday.
The tracks Jill chose to take with her to a desert island were Something Inside So Strong by Labi Siffre, Boyzone’s So Good and Maroon Five’s Sunday Morning as well as The Climb by Myley Cyrus and Peter Andre’s Mysterious Girl.
There were two songs by Whitney Houston – Step By Step and My Love Is Your Love – as well as the Neil Diamond classic Sweet Caroline, which is an England football anthem for fans and players alike.