Helen Glover took a break from her career to start her family, but now she's returning for the 2024 Olympics. We look at who her husband is and the details of her family life, ahead of the big comeback.
Helen Glover retired from rowing in 2016 to start her family, having won gold at both London 2012 and in Rio four years later. Then, after only six months of serious training, she became the first mother to row for GB at the Olympics at Tokyo 2020, placing fourth with her rowing partner Polly Swann. Now, Helen Glover has announced another surprise comeback for Paris 2024, and she plans to make history as the first British mother of three children to reach an Olympic podium.
Much like the tennis Grand Slam tournaments had sports fans wanting to know if Cam Norrie is married and how many kids does Andy Murray have, and the Euros had others asking who are the Lionesses, England's triumphant football team, as Paris 2024 approaches many want to know more about the athletes competing. Here, we reveal who Helen Glover's husband is and the details of her family life.
Who is Helen Glover's husband?
Helen Glover is married to Steve Backshall. Backshall is a TV presenter and expert naturalist, and has worked with National Geographic TV, the Discovery Channel, Sky and the BBC's Natural History Unit.
The pair tied the knot in September 2016 in a clifftop ceremony in Cornwall, with views of the historic island St Michael's Mount in the background. Guests included Steve's co-stars from when he took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2014 - such as Judy Murray, Thom Evans, Sunetra Sarker and Jake Wood - as well as Olympic athletes including Helen's gold medal rowing partner Heather Stanning, who was maid of honour.
The pair reportedly now live in a house near Maidenhead with views of the Thames. Talking to The Guardian recently about her marriage, Helen said: "I’m really lucky I have Steve’s support and often he will take time off work to have the children."
How did Steve Backshall and Helen Glover meet?
The couple met at a Sport Relief event at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2014, and got engaged the following year. At their wedding, HELLO! reported that Helen recalled "seeing Steve across the room and thinking how handsome he was". Steve said: "From the second I saw Hels, I knew she was The One."
They made the announcement that they were engaged on Twitter, while on holiday in Namibia.
Happiest girl in the world!!! Most romantic moment ever as the sun was setting in Namibia ❤️🌞💍 @SteveBackshall pic.twitter.com/EOT3wj3ib7September 16, 2015
Speaking to the Mirror, Steve Backshall revealed some of the details of the proposal. He said: "I took her out into the Namibia desert as the sun was going down. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world, it’s where Mad Max and the latest Star Wars movies were filmed. There are these incredible crimson, scarlet, orange dunes towering high.
"Then I just went down on one knee and proposed and she was absolutely blown away."
He added: "I’m quite a pragmatic person and I would never have believed that there is one person who is right for me - until I met Helen."
Does Helen Glover have children?
Helen Glover and Steve Backshall have three children, their eldest son Logan, born in July 2018, and twins Kit and Willow, who arrived in January 2020.
In March 2018, the couple said they were taking on "the biggest adventure of our lives" by announcing Helen was pregnant with twins. However, one of the babies was lost during pregnancy, and Helen tweeted at the time: "We've had the hard news that one baby hasn't made it but we are very excited and hopeful for the remaining baby to arrive this summer xx"
The, in July 2018, she revealed that their baby had been born, writing on Twitter, "Steve and I will are excited to welcome Baby Boy Backshall to the world we promise to make it a great one for you little man".
The news was accompanied by a sweet photo of Steve's thumb stroking their baby's foot.
Two years later, Helen gave birth to twins Kit Newlyn and Willow Bo. She posted a photo of the baby's feet on Instagram, with the caption "We’re gonna need a bigger boat! 🛶😅".
Talking to BBC Sport ahead of her comeback, Helen said her children are beginning to understand their mother's achievements. She said: "Logan is picking up on things and takes pride in me doing it [pushing for another Olympics]."
She added: "The twins are the biggest cheerleaders - they're there cheering and shouting 'go Mummy!'
"It's really bizarre because before I had them, I was a full-time athlete and that was my identity but now it's the opposite.
"It's like I live a double life because they'll always be the most important thing to me now."
Helen Glover net worth
Several sources put Helen Glover's net worth at $1.7million - which is roughly £1.4million.
As an Olympic medallist, Helen will have made a fair bit of money from sponsorships. In an interview for Metro, she explained that when she first started training for the Olympics she was working as a teacher at the same time, and it wasn't until she met her rowing partner Heather Stanning and made it onto the Olympic rowing team that she was earning enough to leave teaching.
She added that her main income at the time was from public speaking and some sponsorship work.
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