Is ‘Whitstable Pearl' returning for season 4? Everything we know so far
Fans can't get enough of Whitstable Pearl , the British crime drama that's got everyone hooked on its seaside mysteries and charming characters. Picture this: Whitstable's windswept beaches, cozy pubs, and Pearl Nolan digging into the town's secrets. Season 3 left viewers craving more, but is a fourth season coming? Here's the rundown on everything known so far. Has Whitstable Pearl Season 4 Been Confirmed?
Here's the deal: as of July 18, 2025, no official announcement has confirmed Whitstable Pearl Season 4. Acorn TV and Buccaneer Media, the show's producers, haven't dropped any news about a renewal. Online chatter, especially on Reddit, shows fans speculating and hoping, but nothing's set in stone. No premiere date, no production hints—zip.
Still, there's reason to stay optimistic. Acorn TV jumped on renewing Season 3 before Season 2 even aired, which shows they're big on the series. The fanbase is vocal, loving the cast and that laid-back coastal charm. Julie Wassmer's books offer plenty of material to mine, so a fourth season feels like it could happen. For now, though, it's a waiting game. Keep an ear out for updates from Acorn TV. What to Expect in Whitstable Pearl Season 4?
No confirmation means no solid details, but imagining what a fourth season might look like is half the fun. Based on the show's track record and fan buzz, here are some possibilities. Fresh Coastal Crimes
Every season delivers new mysteries, blending quirky locals with proper suspense. Season 3 had cases like a dodgy psychic and a decades-old cold case. A fourth season would likely serve up more of that—think a shady deal at the harbor or a murder tied to a Whitstable festival. Writers like Mike Walden mix book-inspired plots with original stories, so there'd be no shortage of clever twists. Pearl and Mike: Romance or Tease?
The slow-burn chemistry between Pearl and Mike keeps fans glued. Season 3 dropped hints of something deeper, but Pearl's with Tom, and Mike's got his own baggage. Would a new season finally spark something romantic, or keep stringing viewers along? The tension's half the fun, but a little progress wouldn't hurt. The Cast That Shines
If Season 4 gets the go-ahead, expect the core crew back: Kerry Godliman as Pearl Nolan, the heart of every investigation.
Howard Charles as Mike McGuire, all brooding intensity.
Frances Barber as Dolly Nolan, tossing out one-liners and stealing scenes.
Robert Webb as Tom Grant, the chill boyfriend vibe.
Isobelle Molloy and Rohan Nedd as Ruby and Charlie, keeping things lively.
Sophia Del Pizzo as DS Nikki Martel, who fans are begging to see more of.
New guest stars could pop up for each case, and maybe some familiar faces like Kat (Emily Head) would return. Whitstable's Picture-Perfect Backdrop
Whitstable's beaches, harbor, and pubs are practically characters themselves. Filming happens in real Kent spots—think Whitstable Yacht Club or The Old Neptune—plus nearby towns like Margate and Dover. A new season would likely lean into that coastal magic, maybe tossing in a fresh location for variety. Dolly Running the Show
Dolly Nolan, played by Frances Barber, is a total standout. Season 3 let her play detective when Pearl was swamped, and fans on social media can't stop raving about her. A fourth season better give Dolly more chances to snoop and sling zingers—she's the secret sauce.
Ahmedabad Plane Crash
Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication . A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication ,content writing and copy writing. Aman is currently working as journalist at BusinessUpturn.com
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
England's Euro 2022 win transformed the Lionesses' lives but it was also a ‘poisoned chalice'
Outside Oakley's Covent Garden store last September, a snaking queue had formed for the opening of the sunglasses brand's new store in one of London's most iconic locations. Some in line that afternoon had caught the first train from Birmingham for the 80-minute journey to the English capital to secure their spots, waking in the early hours for the chance of a first-come, first-served meet-and-greet with one of Oakley's brand ambassadors: Alessia Russo. The England striker is not the only Lioness whose profile has catapulted since that famous Euro 2022 victory on home soil; when a first major women's trophy was secured and old rivals Germany were defeated in front of a raucous Wembley crowd. For the country's most popular players, captain Leah Williamson, Russo, charismatic goalkeeper Mary Earps and winning goalscorer that night, Chloe Kelly, there have been invitations to fashion shows, NBA games, Formula One races and the BAFTAs, the British equivalent of the Oscars, to name just a few opportunities presented to those who are now household names. Lauren James, the 23-year-old who has been described as the most naturally gifted footballer in the country, joined Williamson as the face of this summer's Pepsi MAX and Walkers crisps advertising campaigns in the UK. Over the years, brands such as Burberry, Calvin Klein, Cadbury and Victoria's Secret have partnered with select members of the squad, while Vogue, British GQ and Women's Health, some of the world's most recognisable publications, have made Lionesses their cover stars. From movement coaches for fashion shoots to employing security at book signings, the world looks very different nowadays for England women's footballers. 'It would have been unheard of before Euro 2022,' Misha Sher, global sports marketing expert and executive at WPP Media, tells The Athletic. 'The profile and relevance of the Lionesses, especially those at high-profile clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea, have grown significantly. How many of the players would have been known outside of women's football before that tournament? Their relevance in broader culture was minimal, so why would you have them at the biggest sporting or cultural events? 'Their increase in profile means they become more relevant. That means their audience is bigger, which attracts more brands and those that appeal to broader society where they have never been seen before. 'As footballers, their relevance would be for a niche audience. We would not have the BBC producing a podcast with Ella Toone and Alessia Russo if they had not become culturally iconic as a duo.' The Tooney and Russo Show, which gives listeners an insight into the players' lives and friendship, first aired last year. But it is the Calvin Klein partnerships which particularly caught Sher's attention. Kelly modelled for the American fashion label ahead of the 2023 Women's World Cup, while Williamson featured in ads ahead of this summer's Euros. 'Calvin Klein is not speaking to football fans,' he said. 'They are a major fashion brand. They believe that some of the Lionesses have the cultural cachet to be on their billboards. Those are the moments where you just go: 'Wow'.' The Euro 2022 squad were the flag bearers, the history-makers, and brands wanted to snap them up. Such was their influence, one player agency specifically wanted to add a Lioness to their roster. A Lioness playing in the Women's Super League (WSL) was seen as the 'magic formula' which opened doors for sponsorship deals, said a representative who, like all sources in this article, wished to remain anonymous to protect relations. Some of the Lionesses receive more commercial opportunities than England men's players, a source said, and are making significantly more money via these partnerships than their club salary. The most recognisable Lionesses went from securing low-level, one-off campaigns to more meaningful and longer-term partnerships that can be worth at least six figures and rising — many times more than before Euro 2022. For non-international WSL players, however, commercial deals are much harder to come by. 'Lionesses are just on a pedestal, elevated to a completely different level,' one representative said. That impacts matters on the pitch, too. After Euro 2022, some WSL clubs factored in the 'Lioness effect' into their recruitment strategy. England players get bums on seats and eyeballs on TV. They were part of the reason 60,000 people packed the Emirates Stadium in back-to-back sell-outs in 2024 as Arsenal hosted Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United in the WSL. The season after Euro 2022, Aston Villa's marketing strategy centred on getting fans to buy season tickets to watch their English internationals: Rachel Daly and Hannah Hampton. Commercial opportunities, however, are reserved for a small number of Lionesses, to the highest-profile players: captain, starting striker, winning goalscorer or biggest personality. It is not enough to be a Lioness — but that is often the case in most team sports. Look at the England's men's team; it is not a surprise Jude Bellingham or Harry Kane receive significantly more media and commercial interest than their team-mates. Within the Lionesses' squad, there is a huge disparity in commercial and media opportunities, and since Euro 2022 brand partnerships have not materialised even for regular members of the starting XI. Players not playing in England, for example, can miss out because brands often want to promote them in their own territory. Naturally, England players look sideways and notice what their team-mates are doing off the pitch. 'There is definitely an element of jealousy at seeing others getting deals,' said one representative. 'The Euros was amazing, but it also created some monsters. There is a generation of players who think it is easy to be a Lioness because they just win. Some of the players had a poor attitude, an ego and a swagger about them, thinking anyone can be a Lioness. But an England cap should be worth something.' Another source raised similar concerns, describing winning the Euros as a 'poisoned chalice' as it created a level of entitlement. 'It was rife going into the 2023 World Cup,' they said. 'The team's culture was to worry about who was getting which commercial deal rather than focus on the primary source of success, which was football. That attitude has changed.' For tournament debutantes, such as Michelle Agyemang, 19, and Aggie Beever-Jones, 21, they have been thrust into another world at Euro 2025. Agyemang, 'glued to the screen' as she watched Euro 2022 from home, has had to get used to the limelight, especially as it's her goalscoring from the substitutes' bench which has helped propel England to Sunday's Euro 2025 final against Spain. 'When I was younger I didn't really like the cameras,' Arsenal's teenage striker told reporters, adding that she was still learning how to communicate effectively with the fans and media. 'It's the way the women's game is growing, you will have to speak, you can't hide from the cameras. I'm working on it but I think I'm doing a good job.' Chelsea forward Beever-Jones, who made her senior international debut in July 2024, was 'in awe of everything' when she touched down in Zurich ahead of this summer's Euros and arrived at England's five-star Disney castle-esque Dolder Grand Hotel. 'It still doesn't even really feel like it's happening,' she said, admitting her hat-trick against Portugal at Wembley before the tournament still felt surreal. But the growth in women's football is a double-edged sword. Last week, England defender Jess Carter spoke out about the racial online abuse, described by her England team-mates and manager Sarina Wiegman as 'vile' and 'disgusting', that she has been subjected to throughout Euro 2025. 'The bigger the game gets, the bigger the noise becomes, the more fans there are but the more critics there are,' Lucy Bronze, the most experienced player in the squad, told reporters during the tournament. 'We're open to critics, that's why we love the sport, but we're not open to abuse. 'No player needs social media to carry on in sport but from a commercial standpoint, the more a player puts themself out there via different media and builds their brand, the more they maximise their potential earnings. But at what cost?' There are other pressures. too. After Euro 2022 and, to a lesser extent, the 2023 World Cup when England reached the final, one representative said they found the volume of requests 'overwhelming'. Players are recognised in the street and restaurants; pubs suddenly fill with fans if they visit with their families and their whereabouts are put on social media. 'Within six weeks, they became famous,' Wiegman said in 2022. 'Some players can't walk down the street anymore without being almost mobbed. That's a big thing in your private life. You need time to adapt.' The higher-profile players are used to the attention, having been exposed to it over the last few years. Some enjoy the off-pitch work. For Toone and Russo, for example, their podcast is an opportunity to spend time together and a welcome distraction from the intensity of football. Others are advised to 'smile and do their selfie', even though they may not feel entirely comfortable. But they know they have a responsibility — it comes with the job and they have a duty to honour the work of previous generations. Among the training, matches, recovery, photoshoots and media requests, managing a player's schedule is no mean feat. 'Everyone wants a piece of you,' said one representative. 'Diary management becomes really hard. An off day really needs to be an off day.' Another said they were mindful of not 'flogging' their players. 'Time with their family and friends is important. They will tell me: 'I need a day off'.' As their profile increases, players' teams get bigger; football agents, commercial agents and social media teams. Even midway through this summer's tournament, the UK's biggest radio stations and television news shows contacted players' camps to ask for their availability should England do well. Those close to the players say they remain grounded, unchanged and just want to chat about day-to-day things. There is a constant tension, however, between women's footballers becoming a walking billboard and keeping their unique selling point: authenticity and relatability. Reaching another major final has boosted the Lionesses' profiles once more. Given their soaring popularity over the past three years, matching their Euro 2022 success on Sunday would propel them to another stratosphere. Their lives will change again, for better and for worse. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. England, Soccer, International Football, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Buzz Feed
4 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
22 Terrifying True Stories That Remain Unexplained
Recently, people on Reddit shared their most frightening unexplained experiences, and I made the mistake of reading them right before attempting to go to sleep. Now, I have no choice but to share these spine-tingling tales with you. Here are the stories that made me afraid to turn out the lights: "The night before my birthday in 1996, I dreamed that I was walking around near the peak of Everest. It was snowing hard, but I was quite comfortable. There was a tent. To announce my presence, I sang 'Goober Peas." The two men inside were frightened, and I tried to calm and cheer them. I stayed with them a while and comforted them." "A few years later, I read about the Everest disaster in which mountaineers had to pitch a tent too high on Everest and died there, the night before my birthday in 1996. I can't explain it, but I hope I comforted them."—Yugan-Dali "In 1989, I was driving on a familiar rural highway in broad daylight. I was rounding an easy bend and shocked to see a small town on the right side of the road. There's a sign: St. Vincent. A few of the things immediately noticeable were a shop called Webster Welding, an old-fashioned horse-drawn water pump for fire fighting, several large poplars with dead tops, and black and white painted rocks along the street that faced the highway. I kept watching in the rear-view mirror, and it stayed visible. I drive a few miles, and there is a gentleman waving at me from beside his car." "We were playing team tag at night back in middle school. A friend and I were hiding near a bush around a tree. Suddenly, something in the bush moved, and we assumed it was an animal. We threw a stick into the bush, and it came flying back out. A dark figure about 4 feet tall ran across the field into the woods. We freaked out and ran back to our house, about a 1/2 mile away." "I moved to a different city for university at the peak of the pandemic. I lived off campus in a suite with a couple of my friends from my hometown. Life happened, and they both ended up moving out by the end of the first semester. So I was now living alone in a very quiet neighbourhood. I got off of work late one night and crawled into bed around 12 a.m. I woke up about an hour later to the sound of footsteps shuffling around in my bedroom." "I opened my eyes to see a very tall man in my doorway, backlit by the streetlights, with his cellphone upright in his hand as if he was recording. When the person registered that I was awake, they backed their way out of the room and started running. I followed them outside and watched them hop into the driver's seat of an empty car that had been left running before speeding down the street.I had no information to give to the police when they arrived. To this day, I have no idea who that person could have been, or what they were doing in my bedroom at 1 a.m."—_sekwekwi "This still gives me chills just thinking about it. I was 7 or 8 years old. I was lying in the top bunk of the bunkbed I shared with my twin brother. We had an attached bathroom, and the only light coming in the room was the light emanating from under the bathroom door. I was lying in bed, listening to my brother cry as my dad tried to remove a splinter from my brother's finger. I looked at the foot of my bed, and I saw a man about 5'10" tall, long hair about shoulder length, short beard, and what looked like a flannel shirt and possibly overalls or suspenders standing there, and his pupils were glowing, kind of green, like if you see an animal's eyes in the dark." "It's around 3 in the morning in rural North-Central Alberta. My friend and I are driving home from a high school party in which neither of us drank or took any drugs. It's the middle of winter. In Alberta, this means it's cold outside. This night it was below -30 degrees Celsius (below -22 degrees Fahrenheit). The whole way home, my friend and I are chatting. As we round a corner, I'm zoning out listening to my friend talk, when through the windshield, I notice glowing eyes off the side of the road, the headlights not fully hitting whatever it was. The eyes were green/yellowish. This would be normal, but these eyes are about 7-8 feet above the ground." "It was around 1 a.m., and I was still up watching TV. I couldn't sleep. I got really into watching some sort of history documentary about the Shroud of Turin. When they zoomed up closely to the shroud, my TV started to glitch, and the picture was stuck on the shroud. The audio froze, and then I heard a man's voice saying, 'Don't look' in a really unnatural deep voice. It felt like it was right behind me." "I whipped my head around, and there was nobody there. I have lived alone since my wife passed. My daughter and grandchild come over on occasion, but this night I was alone. I live in rural Ireland, and whilst not my first rodeo with ghosts, etc, this experience felt unnatural. I don't know why. The TV went back to normal a couple of seconds after I heard 'don't look.' I managed to hunt down the documentary and combed it for these don't know where it came from. For some reason it really frightened me. I went to bed a little shaken up, if I'm honest. If I see anything about the Shroud of Turin advertised or in news articles, I get a shiver. The voice sounded extremely deep. I've never heard a voice like it. Big baritone voice. I don't know. I'm getting the shivers typing this, and I've seen some stuff in my lifetime on this earth."—Banpitbullspronto "My first husband and I were separated. I dreamed one night he arrived at our home and knocked on the door. When I opened the door, he looked extremely tired and a sunken version of himself. Even though he didn't say it, he was asking forgiveness with his eyes. Of course, I forgave him and welcomed him inside. Our favorite thing to do was to lie in bed and talk for hours, so we lay in the bed and began our conversation about nonsense stuff. As we were talking, the window at the foot of our bed was glowing a bright, warm light (not blinding but comforting)." "I was out with my ex-roommate on a night drive. We liked to go driving and get lost in the country sometimes and just jam out to music and talk. We lived in central Illinois, so it was pretty much just open land and cornfields. It was super dark, though, so we couldn't see too much beyond the sides of the road and what was in front of us. My roomie was driving, and at this point we had the music off. She suddenly stopped mid-sentence. I had been looking at my phone, so I looked up at her when she got quiet. Her eyes were wide and her brow furrowed. I looked up at the road. On the left side, there was a man just ominously staring into the darkness." "My friends and I went exploring in the caves in Lilydale as teenagers. They were and still are rumored to be haunted. But no one knew it at that time. We were about halfway in when this happened. We were telling stories and laughing, and could hear this faint clinking noise up ahead. My friends were curious, so we decided to go further. As we went deeper and deeper in the cave, we saw a light up ahead and could not make out where it was coming from. We started to see a figure, but it wasn't moving." "We slowly approached the figure, and it appeared to be an old man mining wearing dirty overalls, a dirty white shirt, and a dirty yellowish hat. His sleeves were rolled up, and he had a long beard. One of my friends yelled out, 'Boo,' and he turned towards us and started running after us. It appeared he was about 50 to 60 years old, but he didn't move like a man. It took us a good 10 minutes to get back to the car, and we sped our way home. About a mile past the caves, we saw the same man on the side of the road. We were all screaming, trying to figure out how he got ahead of us without a vehicle. We have only talked about that night a couple of times, but we are all convinced we saw a ghost or supernatural being."—archameidus "My partner and I had some guy decide he was going to try to intentionally ram our car in a parking lot. We thankfully escaped unharmed after a terrifying chase, but we never figured out why he zeroed in on us. We were just minding our own business, trying to leave the lot. We still occasionally rehash it years later, but it makes no sense at all." "This happened to me when I was about 14. No one believes me, and I obviously can't prove it, but I know. I was babysitting two girls, one five and a baby in a crib. They were in the same room. It was a Victorian-style house with a third floor for the main room. I was watching TV and heard the baby crying. I waited and didn't hear her again, so I figured she went back to sleep. A bit later, I heard her again, and I went upstairs to check on her." "I lived briefly in a rental home, which was owned by a church in a small Florida town, and which was built in 1908. Every night around 8 o'clock, I heard dragging, shuffling footsteps coming from the kitchen. If I walked into the kitchen, they would stop, and if I turned my head to look into the kitchen from the den, they would pause and continue the very moment I looked away again. This lasted for five minutes or so each and every night." —dirtybirdsriseup "When I was a teen, I was in the living room around 3 a.m. Just chilling on my laptop on the couch. Two years before, my uncle had passed away in the room above the living room I was currently sitting in. I swear it was like all of a sudden, every window upstairs had been opened from the way the wind suddenly blew around and sounded. And then I remember hearing one loud THUD directly above me in the room upstairs." "When I was around 13 or 14 years old, I was spending the summer at my grandparents' home in rural Guatemala. I guess my grandfather was going through something and was dealing with it the only way he knew, getting drunk. It was my first time seeing him like that, so I followed my mom's lead in dealing with him. She gave me his stash of mostly empty bottles and told me to pour them out in the little grove between my grandparents' home and my uncle's home. I go as far in as possible and start pouring them out, when I suddenly hear some shuffling." "When my gran was 10, her dad died in a train accident, leaving her and her mother to care for her much younger brother. A few years later, her brother had come out of his bedroom in the middle of the night, terrified. He said that there was a man at the end of his bed. My gran and her mum checked his room thoroughly and didn't find anything there. They all went back to bed. A few minutes later, he complained again, saying that the man was still there." "Once more, they checked the room and found nothing. My gran's mum asked him what the man was doing. He said he was just smiling. She asked him to describe what the man looked like. Keep in mind that he was very little, around 2 or 3, I think, when his dad died, and he would have forgotten what he looked like by this point. As he was describing the man, my gran and her mum were beginning to get scared. He was describing his dad."—noahthequeerfish "The house I live in is pretty old, and we have heard a lot of strange things here. Bangs, crashes, and things moving/falling are fairly normal, but one night I awoke to find myself in the middle of a bad case of sleep paralysis. I was lying flat on my back, and there was a huge shadow person leaning over me and pushing down on my chest. I tried to scream, but no sound would come out, and I couldn't move anything except my eyes to wake my husband. It was terrifying, but once I broke the spell and woke up, I realised it was simply a nightmare and felt better." "I had a vivid dream about running frantically along a beach promenade, screaming to other people to run and trying desperately to cling to the benches, and huge waves crashed over us and receded. Then, getting up and sprinting again to the next point of safety where we could cling to something. When I woke up, I didn't recall the dream immediately, but walked into the living room where my parents were watching breaking news about the tsunami in Japan, and it struck me so intensely that I'd just seen something exactly like that, and the dream came rushing back." "In my last house, I used to hear someone whispering my name at night upstairs. I never noticed for a while because I would have a headset on, but when I took it off, I would hear it every now and then. The sound was so close it felt like it was inside my head. Then I started hearing it in my son's room when I would feed him at night. It freaked me out for a while, but I chalked it up to lack of sleep as a new dad." "One night, my wife came downstairs from feeding our son and asked, 'Were you calling me? I thought I heard you whispering from the stairs.' I never said a word about it to her prior to this. It continued for both of us until we moved out. It never escalated, so we just called it our little ghost."—CamoMeatball "I think I was in college (about 20 years ago), and I was staying at my parents for the weekend. They live in an apartment building. It was in the middle of the night, around 1–2 a.m., when suddenly we heard loud scratches and bangs on the entrance door. They were so loud that we all got up and gathered in the hallway to see what was happening. My father looked through the door sight, and there was nothing there." "I was talking to my roommate while her boyfriend was on the balcony smoking. My back was to the TV. Mid-sentence, she stopped talking and began to stammer. I thought she was having a stroke at first. She pointed behind me, and I turned. An orb of blueish white energy was rising above the TV." And finally, "When I was a kid, my sister (3 years older than me) was convinced she had magical powers. Almost every week, she was telling me she had some new power. 'I have cat powers!' 'I can turn invisible!' 'I have spider powers!' When I was 5, my sister and I went to a jungle gym play place. Her power at this time was that she could 'disappear into thin air.' I didn't believe her. I asked her to prove it." "She said, 'Oh no, you must not watch. When I disappear, I emit a very toxic form of light known as green flash. It will poison you if you see it!' I said I still didn't believe said she would go round the corner and disappear, and that I had to not watch, but that when she did, I would never be able to find her. And so she went round the corner. But here's the thing. The 'walls' were netting. I could see her perfectly through the netting, which was 99% hole. She thought I couldn't see her, but I could see her eyes were locked onto her, not blinking, as she stood in the corridor around the then... she fucking was there, and then she wasn't.I RAN to where she had been, and looked high and low around the area for her, and sure enough, she was NOWHERE to be seen. The corridor was a dead end, so there's nowhere she could've run away, other than back down the corridor, which I would've seen. There were no other people in that corridor at this time, either. Nobody ran between us. I literally just saw her disappear into thin air.I ran around the jungle gym trying to find her, and eventually found her in a COMPLETELY different part of it. When I asked her how she disappeared, she said, 'See, I told you I have powers!'To this day, I have absolutely no fucking CLUE how this happened. I can't even begin to work out what happened or how she did this. She was totally motionless when she disappeared. She didn't appear to move up, down, left, or right before vanishing. She was there, then she was gone. And I still have no fucking clue how."—FeelThePower999 Has anything like this ever happened to you? Tell us your unexplained story in the comments or via the anonymous form below:
New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
England's Euro 2022 win transformed the Lionesses' lives but it was also a ‘poisoned chalice'
Outside Oakley's Covent Garden store last September, a snaking queue had formed for the opening of the sunglasses brand's new store in one of London's most iconic locations. Some in line that afternoon had caught the first train from Birmingham for the 80-minute journey to the English capital to secure their spots, waking in the early hours for the chance of a first-come, first-served meet-and-greet with one of Oakley's brand ambassadors: Alessia Russo. Advertisement The England striker is not the only Lioness whose profile has catapulted since that famous Euro 2022 victory on home soil; when a first major women's trophy was secured and old rivals Germany were defeated in front of a raucous Wembley crowd. For the country's most popular players, captain Leah Williamson, Russo, charismatic goalkeeper Mary Earps and winning goalscorer that night, Chloe Kelly, there have been invitations to fashion shows, NBA games, Formula One races and the BAFTAs, the British equivalent of the Oscars, to name just a few opportunities presented to those who are now household names. Lauren James, the 23-year-old who has been described as the most naturally gifted footballer in the country, joined Williamson as the face of this summer's Pepsi MAX and Walkers crisps advertising campaigns in the UK. Over the years, brands such as Burberry, Calvin Klein, Cadbury and Victoria's Secret have partnered with select members of the squad, while Vogue, British GQ and Women's Health, some of the world's most recognisable publications, have made Lionesses their cover stars. From movement coaches for fashion shoots to employing security at book signings, the world looks very different nowadays for England women's footballers. 'It would have been unheard of before Euro 2022,' Misha Sher, global sports marketing expert and executive at WPP Media, tells The Athletic. 'The profile and relevance of the Lionesses, especially those at high-profile clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea, have grown significantly. How many of the players would have been known outside of women's football before that tournament? Their relevance in broader culture was minimal, so why would you have them at the biggest sporting or cultural events? 'Their increase in profile means they become more relevant. That means their audience is bigger, which attracts more brands and those that appeal to broader society where they have never been seen before. 'As footballers, their relevance would be for a niche audience. We would not have the BBC producing a podcast with Ella Toone and Alessia Russo if they had not become culturally iconic as a duo.' The Tooney and Russo Show, which gives listeners an insight into the players' lives and friendship, first aired last year. But it is the Calvin Klein partnerships which particularly caught Sher's attention. Kelly modelled for the American fashion label ahead of the 2023 Women's World Cup, while Williamson featured in ads ahead of this summer's Euros. 'Calvin Klein is not speaking to football fans,' he said. 'They are a major fashion brand. They believe that some of the Lionesses have the cultural cachet to be on their billboards. Those are the moments where you just go: 'Wow'.' The Euro 2022 squad were the flag bearers, the history-makers, and brands wanted to snap them up. Such was their influence, one player agency specifically wanted to add a Lioness to their roster. A Lioness playing in the Women's Super League (WSL) was seen as the 'magic formula' which opened doors for sponsorship deals, said a representative who, like all sources in this article, wished to remain anonymous to protect relations. Advertisement Some of the Lionesses receive more commercial opportunities than England men's players, a source said, and are making significantly more money via these partnerships than their club salary. The most recognisable Lionesses went from securing low-level, one-off campaigns to more meaningful and longer-term partnerships that can be worth at least six figures and rising — many times more than before Euro 2022. For non-international WSL players, however, commercial deals are much harder to come by. 'Lionesses are just on a pedestal, elevated to a completely different level,' one representative said. That impacts matters on the pitch, too. After Euro 2022, some WSL clubs factored in the 'Lioness effect' into their recruitment strategy. England players get bums on seats and eyeballs on TV. They were part of the reason 60,000 people packed the Emirates Stadium in back-to-back sell-outs in 2024 as Arsenal hosted Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United in the WSL. The season after Euro 2022, Aston Villa's marketing strategy centred on getting fans to buy season tickets to watch their English internationals: Rachel Daly and Hannah Hampton. Commercial opportunities, however, are reserved for a small number of Lionesses, to the highest-profile players: captain, starting striker, winning goalscorer or biggest personality. It is not enough to be a Lioness — but that is often the case in most team sports. Look at the England's men's team; it is not a surprise Jude Bellingham or Harry Kane receive significantly more media and commercial interest than their team-mates. Within the Lionesses' squad, there is a huge disparity in commercial and media opportunities, and since Euro 2022 brand partnerships have not materialised even for regular members of the starting XI. Players not playing in England, for example, can miss out because brands often want to promote them in their own territory. Advertisement Naturally, England players look sideways and notice what their team-mates are doing off the pitch. 'There is definitely an element of jealousy at seeing others getting deals,' said one representative. 'The Euros was amazing, but it also created some monsters. There is a generation of players who think it is easy to be a Lioness because they just win. Some of the players had a poor attitude, an ego and a swagger about them, thinking anyone can be a Lioness. But an England cap should be worth something.' Another source raised similar concerns, describing winning the Euros as a 'poisoned chalice' as it created a level of entitlement. 'It was rife going into the 2023 World Cup,' they said. 'The team's culture was to worry about who was getting which commercial deal rather than focus on the primary source of success, which was football. That attitude has changed.' For tournament debutantes, such as Michelle Agyemang, 19, and Aggie Beever-Jones, 21, they have been thrust into another world at Euro 2025. Agyemang, 'glued to the screen' as she watched Euro 2022 from home, has had to get used to the limelight, especially as it's her goalscoring from the substitutes' bench which has helped propel England to Sunday's Euro 2025 final against Spain. 'When I was younger I didn't really like the cameras,' Arsenal's teenage striker told reporters, adding that she was still learning how to communicate effectively with the fans and media. 'It's the way the women's game is growing, you will have to speak, you can't hide from the cameras. I'm working on it but I think I'm doing a good job.' Chelsea forward Beever-Jones, who made her senior international debut in July 2024, was 'in awe of everything' when she touched down in Zurich ahead of this summer's Euros and arrived at England's five-star Disney castle-esque Dolder Grand Hotel. 'It still doesn't even really feel like it's happening,' she said, admitting her hat-trick against Portugal at Wembley before the tournament still felt surreal. But the growth in women's football is a double-edged sword. Last week, England defender Jess Carter spoke out about the racial online abuse, described by her England team-mates and manager Sarina Wiegman as 'vile' and 'disgusting', that she has been subjected to throughout Euro 2025. 'The bigger the game gets, the bigger the noise becomes, the more fans there are but the more critics there are,' Lucy Bronze, the most experienced player in the squad, told reporters during the tournament. 'We're open to critics, that's why we love the sport, but we're not open to abuse. Advertisement 'No player needs social media to carry on in sport but from a commercial standpoint, the more a player puts themself out there via different media and builds their brand, the more they maximise their potential earnings. But at what cost?' There are other pressures. too. After Euro 2022 and, to a lesser extent, the 2023 World Cup when England reached the final, one representative said they found the volume of requests 'overwhelming'. Players are recognised in the street and restaurants; pubs suddenly fill with fans if they visit with their families and their whereabouts are put on social media. 'Within six weeks, they became famous,' Wiegman said in 2022. 'Some players can't walk down the street anymore without being almost mobbed. That's a big thing in your private life. You need time to adapt.' The higher-profile players are used to the attention, having been exposed to it over the last few years. Some enjoy the off-pitch work. For Toone and Russo, for example, their podcast is an opportunity to spend time together and a welcome distraction from the intensity of football. Others are advised to 'smile and do their selfie', even though they may not feel entirely comfortable. But they know they have a responsibility — it comes with the job and they have a duty to honour the work of previous generations. Among the training, matches, recovery, photoshoots and media requests, managing a player's schedule is no mean feat. 'Everyone wants a piece of you,' said one representative. 'Diary management becomes really hard. An off day really needs to be an off day.' Another said they were mindful of not 'flogging' their players. 'Time with their family and friends is important. They will tell me: 'I need a day off'.' As their profile increases, players' teams get bigger; football agents, commercial agents and social media teams. Even midway through this summer's tournament, the UK's biggest radio stations and television news shows contacted players' camps to ask for their availability should England do well. Those close to the players say they remain grounded, unchanged and just want to chat about day-to-day things. There is a constant tension, however, between women's footballers becoming a walking billboard and keeping their unique selling point: authenticity and relatability. Reaching another major final has boosted the Lionesses' profiles once more. Given their soaring popularity over the past three years, matching their Euro 2022 success on Sunday would propel them to another stratosphere. Their lives will change again, for better and for worse. (Top photos: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images; Karwai Tang/WireImage; Illustration: Eamonn Dalton/The Athletic)
