TV host Sam Quek is looking forward to welcoming her second child – but has had to deal with cruel taunts after a previous pregnancy ended tragically.
The 33-year-old Question of Sport captain and presenter on BBC1’s Morning Live is 37 weeks pregnant.
The baby is due next month – and first child Molly turns one on Wednesday.
Life could barely be happier. But Sam can never forget the trolls who targeted her – one even threatening to stab her – only days after she had suffered a miscarriage. And the grim experience has, she says, forced her to toughen up.
Sam – who won Olympic gold with the Team GB hockey team at Rio in 2016 – recalls: “I have had the maddest things written about me but there was a really terrible one when I was presenting a football show on Radio 1.
“I said something along the lines of ‘ FA Cup replays should be got rid of.’ A lot of people disagreed with me and agreed. But the people that disagreed went really hard and I had some awful, awful things including a death threat.
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“There was a post on social media that read, ‘When I see Sam Quek in the street, I will just stab her’.
“But what they didn’t realise is I had my miscarriage two days before that show and I wasn’t in a great place.
“I’d gone into work because I just wanted to try and distract myself. I hadn’t really digested the miscarriage.”
Sam’s heartbreak came at 10 weeks pregnant. She says: “I got really upset but I still did The One Show the next week because I didn’t want people to think if you get abused that you just hide away, because that was not the case.
“Sadly, especially with social media, people have easy access to point things out they don’t agree with or they think are horrible. I’ve had to learn to toughen up and ignore what I read and get a thick skin.
“It’s not been an easy place to get to and it’s taken me years to get there.”
Sam revealed she was pregnant again last October, seven months after having Molly. And despite having two tots just a year apart, she will return to work – and will be on screen right up until the birth.
This month, she became a permanent presenter of BBC1’s Morning Live along with Kimberley Walsh, Sara Cox, Kym Marsh and Gethin Jones.
So is she worried about going into labour live on air? She says: “I’ve laughed and joked about it with Gethin and a few of the guys on the show and I say, ‘What if my waters break?’
“We joke that it would make great TV and then at least it would be natural. But no, I’m not worried. If it happens then so be it – and I can imagine that’ll be a headline or two!
“I also can’t wait to work with Kym, Kimberley and Sara. We are such a tight team and have developed great friendships. We have at least 10 children between us so I’ll know who to turn to for advice.
“Before we know it we’ll probably be doing a day out at Chester Zoo all together! I’m going to work right up to the birth because I’m feeling good.
“It depends on the outcome of the birth as to when I actually come back.”
Mirror sports columnist Sam also reveals that her husband, Tom Mairs, feels guilty motherhood came along just as her career was soaring.
She adds: “Molly took 18 months to conceive, so we didn’t expect this one to happen so quickly. I’ve been pregnant for my last two birthdays, Christmases and Valentine’s and I did say to Tom that I ’m gonna have a big one next year! But it’s a small price to pay because I love Molly so much – and I know I will love this one the same."
