Millie

England defender Millie Bright has announced her retirement from international football.

The 32-year-old, who was part of England’s European Championship-winning team in 2022, made her senior debut in September 2016 and went on to win 88 caps.

“I’ve been weighing this up for a long time,” Chelsea captain Bright said on Monday’s ‘Rest is Football: Daly Brightness’ podcast.

“It’s one of those decisions no-one can make for you. It’s a feeling and I’m at peace with it.”

Bright missed out as England defended their Euros title in Switzerland in July after ruling herself out of the tournament because she would be unable to “give 100% mentally or physically”.

Over the summer she had successful knee surgery and started counselling sessions, while she said the decision to withdraw from Sarina Wiegman’s squad was “by far the best decision I have ever made”.

“Having the summer to reflect, fix my knee and get my head straight really put things into perspective. As you get older your priorities change. I’ve been craving family time, time with friends and time for myself,” Bright said.

Bright started every game as England won their first major women’s trophy at Euro 2022, and captained Wiegman’s side to the World Cup final a year later, which they lost to Spain.

“I’m incredibly proud and honoured to have played for England for so long. Every single cap has been special and the memories I’ve made – especially with this one sat opposite me – have been some of the best of my life,” Bright said on the podcast, which she co-hosts with her friend and former England team-mate Rachel Daly.

“But yeah, it’s time. It’s the right time for me to call it a day with England.”

Bright’s final game for the Lionesses was a 3-2 defeat by Belgium in April.

LOVE Islander Millie Court has showcased her stunning figure in a beautiful red dress, leaving ex-boyfriend Liam Reardon to contemplate what might have been.

Millie took to Instagram to share a series of snaps of her wearing the plunging lace number.

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Earlier this month The Sun reported that Millie and Liam had split up for the second time.

It came after they’d first fallen for each other on series seven of the ITV2 reality show, which they went on to win.

They then broke up for the first time in 2022, before getting back together a year later.

They host the Liam and Millie podcast together, and for a while they were able to keep a long-distance relationship going, despite her being based in Essex and Liam living in Wales.

But unfortunately, it seems the distance between them became increasingly problematic, and they broke up for a second time earlier this month.

A source close to the couple exclusively told The Sun Online: “Millie and Liam have tried so hard to make their relationship work.

“But unfortunately, the distance was just difficult and they have sadly ended their relationship for a second time.

“Obviously, they’ve worked things out before, so friends are hoping this might just be a blip as it’s all still very fresh.

“But right now they are spending time apart. Everyone who loves them hopes they can work it out.”

When they broke up the first time Millie said the decision to split wasn’t taken lightly but was “best” for both of them.

She said on Instagram: “Hi everyone, to avoid any speculation Liam and I wanted to share with you that we have separated.

“It’s been a tough decision and I am gutted but it’s ultimately what is best for us right now. Thank you to every single one of you for supporting our relationship.

“Nothing will ever take away from the amazing experience we shared in Love Island and the past year and I wish Liam all the best in everything he does.

“We’re both ready for new chapters and I’m excited for what’s next. Love, Millie.”

Liam also addressed their first split, saying they were struggling to keep pretending to be happy, when that wasn’t how they were truly feeling.

 He said: “We want to keep it a bit more private to a certain extent.

“We spend our lives on social media, it’s hard not to share the relationship.

“But after Love Island we plastered as much of each other out there as possible, and I kind of felt like we had to show people we were really happy all the time even if we were unhappy.

“Now we’re just loving life.”

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In replacing Emma Hayes at Chelsea last summer, Sonia Bompastor perhaps faced the toughest task in women’s football.

But you wouldn’t have guessed this after a season in which the Blues won the WSL, FA Cup and League Cup, and lost in the Women’s Champions League semi-finals to Barcelona.

Despite only being under the guidance of the Frenchwoman for a year, Bright has built a relationship with Bompastor similar to what she had with Hayes, who left the Blues to take charge of the United States women’s national team.

“To be able to experience that and have that relationship with two separate managers is really special,” added Bright.

“To still feel you have that open-door policy, I could go to her for anything, and she has been amazing throughout the summer as well.

“I know if I needed her, I could go to her. You feel really lucky to have that.”

Bright said it was “really refreshing” to return to Chelsea training and is now raring to go for the new campaign.

“I was eager to get back on the pitch and finally be pain free with my knee and it not blow up after every session and I am actually able to walk down stairs after a tough day,” she added.

“I don’t feel like I ever lost the buzz, but I was so drained that I was so ready for a break. But now I am so ready for the first game and get back out there.”

Having won the last six WSL titles and claimed the two cup competitions last season, Chelsea are the dominant force in women’s football.

Before their season opener at Stamford Bridge against Manchester City on Friday, 5 September, Bright said her side will not rest on their laurels, especially having missed out on a coveted first Champions League.

“You can’t stand still,” she added. “You have to look at every factor of the game, what we do and the Chelsea model.

“We achieved a lot, but we didn’t achieve one thing that we really want. We want to do it all again. We don’t just want that, we want everything. We want to be even better.

“Every other team has grown and is getting even stronger and every team is going to want to win like us.

“It’s scary that we are going to another level, but that is the exciting part.”

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, information and support can be found at the BBC’s Action Line.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/actionline

Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi have started a family, welcoming their first child a year after they tied the knot.

“Stranger Things” star Brown and Bongiovi (son of singer Jon Bon Jovi) announced in a joint Instagram post shared Thursday that they had adopted “our sweet baby girl” over the summer. The young pair — Brown is 21 and Bongiovi is 23 — did not share additional information about their little one. Their post also featured a drawing of a willow tree.

“We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy,” the couple said, adding, “And then there were 3.”

Brown, who famously broke out in 2016 for her portrayal of the telekinetic Eleven in Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” has hit a number of personal milestones in the time between the series’ fourth season in 2022 and its fifth and final chapter, which will touch down later this year.

The British “Enola Holmes” and “Electric State” actor reportedly struck up a romance with fellow actor Bongiovi over social media in 2021, and they got engaged in April 2023. A year later, Bon Jovi confirmed rumors about his son and Brown’s wedding, telling BBC’s “The One Show” it was an intimate affair and that his son “is as happy as can be.”

The couple also had a second ceremony in Tuscany in September, according to Vanity Fair. Brown later confirmed her marriage to Bongiovi, sharing in October several photos from that luxurious event.

In the years since her Netflix debut, Brown has also turned her focus to her studies, other business ventures — including her makeup and clothing lines — and running her own farm in Georgia, which also serves as an animal rescue. Bongiovi, on the other hand, made his acting debut in 2024 with the film “Rockbottom” and is set to appear in the upcoming film “Poetic License,” according to IMDb.

Brown enters motherhood as she prepares to close a chapter that defined most of her teen years. Netflix will release the final episodes of “Stranger Things” in three batches: the first on Nov. 26, the second on Christmas and the finale episode on New Year’s Eve.

“I am nowhere near ready to leave you guys,” Brown told her “Stranger Things” crew and cast in a video shared in December. “I love each and every one one of you and I’ll forever carry the memories and bonds we’ve created together as a family.”

It seems Brown will now also have the comfort of her baby girl when that grand finale comes around.

Michael Shanks’ “Together” is the only romance you’ll see this year that’s infatuated by John Carpenter and Plato.

A fusion of body horror and couples therapy, it centers on a sunken cave with a pool of water that, when sipped, makes cells thirst to meld with the nearest mammal. In the opening sequence, this urge to merge overtakes two dogs who smush together like the monster mutt in “The Thing.” (Thankfully, the camera doesn’t linger; the whimpering is plenty.) Now, it’s Tim and Millie’s turn. The unhappy boyfriend and girlfriend, played by real-life spouses Dave Franco and Alison Brie, have moved from the city to the forest anticipating that the scenery change will make or break their relationship. Blend is more like it.

How does ancient philosophy squeeze into a gooey metaphor for codependence? According to Jamie (Damon Herriman), a history teacher at the school where Millie works, Plato’s “Symposium” claims that humans were once rebellious, eight-limbed beings who tumbled around doing cartwheels. Zeus cleaved us pesky mortals in two as a form of control, figuring that we’d be so consumed by the quest to find our other half that we’d never get around to toppling Mount Olympus — and if that didn’t work, he’d leave us “on one leg, hopping.” (Shanks can save that for the sequel.)

It’s worth noting that Plato was kidding, a three-millennium-old joke that’s essentially, “Take my wife — Zeus!” But mating does preoccupy our mental bandwidth, and welding together two lives is unwieldy. Tim and Millie have been dating for a decade, from their hopeful 20s to their resigned 30s, and have become so mismatched in maturity that their efforts to stick together feel less like giddy Grecian handsprings and more like a three-legged race. As Millie confesses early on, “I’m not sure if we love each other or if we’re just used to each other.”

Brie and Franco lend the fictional couple their intimacy, but dial down their spark. Only a few scenes allow their characters any welcome emotional connection. There’s no sense of peeking behind their celebrity curtain, so we’re with Millie’s best friend Cath (Mia Morrissey) when she openly wishes the pair would split for good. But Millie and Tim have leaned on each other so long that neither is sure how to stand on their own. The emotional and physical pain to come has the sense of being aboard a train chugging toward certain disaster. There’s opportunities to jump off, but no one has the nerve to try.

Alison Brie, left, and Dave Franco in “Together.”

(Ben King / Neon)

Shanks is attuned to how a long-term twosome divides up duties (and identities), defining themselves by what each one contributes and, in the process, becoming less of a whole person. Tim can’t drive. Millie can’t cook. Tim is the broke musician. Millie has the steady job. “I’m the boring one,” she says begrudgingly. Meanwhile, the resentful girl struggles to label Tim’s role, stammering to Jamie that she lives with, “my partner, my Tim, my boy-partner Tim.”

“Boy-partner” sounds right. The design teams have outfitted Franco’s hipster with goofy sweatshirts and a fledgling mullet. He can’t even commit to the most famously noncommittal hairstyle. Yet, before long, Tim finds he’s unable to leave Millie’s side for a moment. Every time he touches her, the rest of the world seems to disappear: The focus goes shallow, the fine hairs on Brie’s skin dapple in the light, her muscles creak as loudly as tectonic plates. She’s confused. He keeps apologizing, becoming increasingly flustered and frantic.

The film will go on to have memorably fleshy visuals. (Picture massaging butter underneath the raw skin of a Thanksgiving turkey.) “It Happened One Night’s” Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable relied on a flimsy Wall of Jericho to keep themselves separated. Here, when things get tricky, Millie and Tim reach for an electric handsaw.

Gross? Totally. But empathetic too. Brie’s Millie is sensible and vulnerable, while Franco manages to makes us pity his bad boyfriend Tim. Part of his aloofness comes from grieving his father’s death and his mother’s subsequent mental breakdown; the rest is his shame that his rock ‘n’ roll dreams have yet to become reality. “I thought you’d make Millie cooler,” her younger brother Luke (Jack Kenny) says. “Instead …” Luke adds with a snort, as the rest of the sentence slides into the abyss, taking Tim’s ego with it.

For a first-time feature director, Shanks expertly fuses himself to the audience’s POV. He knows that we know where this is going — the title gives the game away — so his job is to goose the inevitable in ways that make us squirm and gasp. Working with the cinematographer Germain McMicking and the production designer Nicholas Dare, he plunks us into standard jump scare scenarios — the dark hallway, the subterranean lair — and then tricks our eyes into looking at the wrong corner of the frame.

His talent for misdirection also applies to the narrative. Shanks expects us to clock the unacknowledged wedding ring on Herriman’s Jamie, a Hallmark rom-com charmer, and so his script takes our suspicions and twists them once, twice and a third time for good measure. Even steeled for a plot point we’re dreading — the couple making the terrible choice to do something more adult than hold hands — when the scene finally arrives, it’s ickier and more humiliating than we could have imagined.

My quibbles with the ending are too close to spoilers to cite outright. But the delight of the film is that its editor Sean Lahiff has the rhythm of a shock comic. He favors nasty jolts and cartoonish rim shots, like when Millie advises Tim not to do anything stupid and Lahiff immediately smash-cuts to the guy running off full-tilt. Nothing about “Together” screams comedy, yet that’s precisely how it’s put together. Awkward humor is the skeleton under its prestige nightmare surface, even as it’s wonderfully, heartbreakingly tragic to watch our leads roil to melt together like mozzarella. How’s that for an update on the old quip? Make my wife — cheese!

Millie Bobby Brown was known for her role as Eleven in Netflix’s hit series Stranger Things which aired in 2016 – but she didn’t make her film debut until 2019

Stranger Things fans can prepare to watch Millie Bobby Brown on screen tonight – in a role worlds away from her portrayal as Eleven on the hit Netflix show.

Millie Bobby Brown rose to fame when she starred in the Netflix phenomenon, although it wasn’t the star’s first TV role. Before that, she had minor roles in television series including Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. However, it was her portrayal of Eleven that significantly boosted her career.

A huge name on TV, Millie didn’t make her film debut until 2019, when she made her feature film debut in in the Godzilla sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Now, ITV is set to air the sequel to the film, Godzilla vs. Kong, which was released in 2021.

The movie will air on ITV tomorrow night – with a late start time of 11.45, wrapping up at 1:20am on Friday morning. The feature length film will air straight after the late debate. The film has a run time of 1 hour and 53 minutes, but this will be slightly longer due to the adverts on the channel.

Millie reprised her role as Madison Russell, the daughter of Monarch’s Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler).

Godzilla vs. Kong is the fourth instalment of the Monsterverse franchise, in which Millie’s character returned.

In the 2021 film, playing on ITV tonight, her character became the main human tied to the Godzilla storyline.

However, the Stranger Things star didn’t appear in the fifth instalment Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and her character is not mentioned in the film.

During filming of Godzilla Vs. Kong, Millie’s co-stars Brian Tyree Henry and Julian Dennison opened up about how much fun she was on set.

“In between takes, [we] would literally sing our hearts out. It was a lot of fun,” said Henry. “She also likes to bark,” he told Metro.

“I don’t know if that was like a moment for her, like a period of a time where she was just into barking,” Dennison added. “But she would just bark like before a take, if she needed energy, she would just go, ‘woof, woof, woof, woof,’” he continued, although he revealed he had “seen worse from actors.”

Millie has continued to star on the big screen, with her latest movie, The Electric State released on Netflix earlier this year.

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JUST 18 months ago she was flashing her diamond engagement ring on a sun-soaked holiday in Mauritius, toasting a future with the man she called her ‘King’.

But today Lioness Millie Bright is sporting a very different ring on her finger, with her life having seemingly been upended in the space of a week.

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It began with her shock withdrawal from the Euro 2025 squad due to not being able to “give 100 per cent mentally or physically” – a decision she admitted was “one of the hardest I’ve ever had to make”.

Physically, defender Millie is recovering from knee surgery which saw her miss a date with Prince William yesterday to collect her OBE from Windsor Castle.

On a personal level, this week it emerged she’s split from husband-to-be Levi Crew and fallen for married personal trainer and dad-of-seven, Dave Zetolofsky, 39.

She’s also been spotted with a new diamond ring on her little finger – though there’s no suggestion it’s an engagement ring. 

Meanwhile all mentions of Levi have been swiftly deleted from Chelsea captain Millie’s social media accounts, including that Christmas Day engagement post.

But people who know Millie, 31, are not remotely surprised by this single-minded determination to do what’s right for her. 

“Millie is not the type of woman to be troubled by self doubt or regret,” said a source, adding that she makes tough decisions, and sticks to them.

An onlooker said: “Millie’s had a chaotic few weeks with news of her split and pulling out of the England squad. But she’s as tough in real life as she is on the pitch.”

It’s arguably this ruthless, resilient mentality that has got Millie so far in life – going from earning £25 a week in a Yorkshire pit village to a historic victory in the 2022 Euros, leading the women’s national team to the 2023 World Cup final, winning 19 trophies with Chelsea and living in a Surrey mansion worthy of glossy magazine spreads.

Up until recently she shared this immaculate home with Levi, whom she was so devoted to that she proudly displayed a tattoo of his eye on her left arm, along with a tiger because “he gave her core strength through thick and thin”.

She raved about her “perfect kitchen” after it was fitted by high end designers Howdens to include a bespoke pet space under the breakfast bar for her beloved French bulldogs Zeus and Hera, named after Greek gods.

And the garden boasts an Explore ice bath which she uses for her post game ritual.

Millie is thought to have met heavily inked former pro kickboxer and martial arts enthusiast Dave in February.

She joined 21st Century Combat, the gym he co-owns with his wife Katie close to her Surrey mansion, and signed up to his gruelling exercise classes.

There is no suggestion that Millie or Dave cheated on their partners.

Eyes on the prize

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From an early age, Millie always had her eyes firmly fixed on the prize. 

Growing up among the Derbyshire collieries, little Millie’s childhood was quite idyllic. 

She first sat on a horse when she was one, and was riding by the age of three – insisting that horses were her “life rather than a hobby”.

Determined and dedicated, Millie would rise early and be out working in her family’s stable yard by 6am most mornings before school, rain or shine.

She competed every weekend, and the owl Millie has tattooed on her arm is a likeness of the one that flew back to her parents barn every year. 

But suddenly, at the age of nine, she decided to sacrifice it all after stumbling across football by accident.

Millie’s had a chaotic few weeks with news of her split and pulling out of the England squad. But she’s as tough in real life as she is on the pitch

Source

Bored while watching a friend train one morning at her local club, Killamarsh Dynamos, she decided to join in the session.

That was the moment everything changed, and from then on Millie’s life revolved around the Dynamos. 

Millie was such a key player that the club would later name their pitches after her.

Inevitably she outgrew the Dynamos and a few years later – dressed as one of the mustachioed runners from the 118 118 directory enquiries service for a charity run – she seized the opportunity to introduce herself to Paul Green, then manager of Doncaster Belles. 

He recalled that her handshake was so strong that day it took him aback.

Unable to refuse her, her contract was quickly a done deal.

‘Diamond in the rough’

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Another former Doncaster manager, John Buckley, remembers Millie as a diamond in the rough.

“From the minute she came in she was totally involved, a cracking girl,” he said.

Back then women’s football was not the big business it is today, and her wages were just £25 a week. 

Undeterred, Millie juggled two part time jobs – working as a fitness instructor and a horse groom at Esberger’s Yard in Todwick – to supplement her meagre income. 

In 2019 she recalled in an interview with the BBC how an ankle injury at that time not only robbed her of her earnings from football, but left her claiming benefits because she could not work her two other jobs either. 

From the minute she came in she was totally involved, a cracking girl

John BuckleyDoncaster manager

Ever supportive, her parents Nicola and Steve forked out for private surgery and the club paid for her rehabilitation.

“She was always so driven and eventually, she knew what she wanted to do – which was to play professional football,” said Sheila Edmunds, the president of the Doncaster Rovers Belles.

A family friend added: “It was always blood, sweat and tears with Millie, she would play until her entire body hurt.”

As her football career grew more demanding in her teens, Millie was forced to make another tough choice.

She had to abandon the stables for good – and now Millie is barred from horse riding at all by her insurers.

After that of course Millie soared to greater heights and spells in midfield meant she was a direct opponent of England legend Jill Scott, then at Everton. 

In one press conference Scott said: “The girl I played against tonight, that young girl – she’s the most aggressive player I’ve ever played against.” 

Millie’s mum and dad were in the stands at every game, along with her no-nonsense grandparents Margaret and Arthur.

Arthur Bramall, a tough former coal miner who spent his career at the Rossington colliery in Doncaster, is the person Millie relies on the most for honest feedback about her performance on the pitch.

Bitter blow

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Her decision to withdraw from the Euro 2025 squad as they began preparations for the tournament in Switzerland next month was a bitter blow for fans.

Millie admitted: “The demands of it are incredibly high and I would see it as a little bit selfish to take up an opportunity in a position from somebody else when I’m not 100 per cent there.

“It wasn’t an easy decision. I gave it a lot of thought. 

“But ultimately, I thought this was the best decision for the team, but also for myself and using this summer to really just zone into mentally, physically, getting myself back in tip-top condition and just happy again, all round, just feeling like myself. It’s obviously hard.”

Fans have rallied to support Millie on social media, as have her teammates, with Arsenal striker Chloe Kelly writing: “Proud of you always”.

Aston Villa‘s Rachel Daly posted: “Couldn’t be more proud. With you through everything my girl,” and a message on the official Lionesses account read: “We’re all with you, Millie.”

England manager Sarina Wiegman said: “She has to take care of herself. We will stay in contact and I hope she feels better soon.”

While she’ll no doubt find it difficult watching her team play on without her, Millie’s new love certainly provides a big shoulder to cry on.