Former Lioness Steph Houghton has addressed her husband Stephen Darby’s battle with motor neurone disease in a new memoir.
She is best known for winning 121 caps with England, where she played in three football World Cups and was appointed captain of the national team in 2014.
While off the field, she has been a dedicated carer for her husband Stephen Darby – who also played football for the likes of Liverpool and Bradford City – after he was diagnosed with the disease back in 2018.
Houghton retired from football earlier this year after a successful career in which she won Women’s Super League titles with Arsenal and Manchester City.
The former centre-back turned her attention to writing about her career in the memoir titled ‘Leading from the Back’.
But writing about her husband was the hardest chapter she had to write.
Steph Houghton Opens Up On Husband’s Symptoms
Steph Houghton in her memoir revealed that she met her husband in the ‘really romantic’ setting of the 2014 AGM of the Professional Footballers’ Association.
From there she knew Darby was her ‘soulmate’ and recalled remembering how she ‘knew Stephen was the one’ after their first date.
However, the couple were rocked by Darby’s diagnosis with motor neurone disease.
Speaking of MND symptoms, she told the Express: “Things have progressed a lot in the last few years.
“He has good and bad days. It’s obviously hard because I’m living it every single day. I hope it comes across that he’s my absolute world. We remained positive.
“But it took us a bit longer to write that chapter, for sure. And it took us about three hours to do the audiobook chapter. My voice was going. It’s very raw emotions but we made a conscious decision that we wanted to be honest.”
Looking to the future, Houghton said: “If we say we might only have a ‘X’ number of years, we’re beaten already.”
'He's as positive as ever'
Former England footballer Steph Houghton told #BBCBreakfast it's been 'a tough new months' for her husband Stephen Darby who is living with MND after being diagnosed six years agohttps://t.co/lJphMy4rl7 pic.twitter.com/3vBYmaEv4T
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) November 20, 2024
Why The Former Lioness Retired From Football
Steph Houghton retired from football at the end of the 2023-24 season after ten years at Manchester City.
As per the BBC, she said she could have carried on but wanted to spend more time with her husband.
The now BBC pundit said Darby has been fitted with a feeding tube in an attempt to gain more weight.
Houghton told 5 Live Breakfast that she and husband Stephen Darby have considered starting a family.
“We try and do things together and yes, of course, we want our own family one day.
“That might happen over the next couple of years. We have got to try and dream big in terms of we are in a positive position and we have an unbelievable support network.”
