Sue Barker’s pregnant mother threw herself downstairs and drank gin to try and abort her

Sue Barker has revealed that she was an unplanned baby and that, in an attempt to terminate the pregnancy, her mother “drink a lot of gin and bounce off the stairs.”

On Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs today, the former British tennis champion, 66, says her parents were in shock when they had to take care of a third child.

She adds: ‘My father especially, he worked very hard, but they had just budgeted for two children and they didn’t have much money to spare. Then, a few months after my brother was born, my mother Betty was suddenly pregnant again.

‘She apparently drank a lot of gin and once jumped down the stairs. She always said to me, ‘I didn’t want you. I feel so bad about it.’ ‘

Despite her late mother’s confession, Barker, who grew up in Paignton, Devon, says she was very close to her parents who supported her tennis career despite their financial worries.

She says: ‘My mother and I had the most amazing relationship, even though they cut back on the business, so I really salute them because they also gave me my tennis career. Even buying me a tennis racket was a huge step because when you have three kids, you can’t choose one.”

Barker also reveals that Betty turned 100, despite paying little attention to her health.

“She wasn’t known as ‘Betty six gins’ for nothing,” says Barker. “Every time the clock pinged until six o’clock, the gin and tonic came out. But also everything she ate was wrong. Everything was white bread, cold cuts. No water, never drank water. She turned 100, so maybe we’re all wrong.’

Barker, the sane host of BBC TV’s A Question Of Sport for 24 years, also reveals that she was a tearjerker at her convent school and often a major headache for the nuns, whom she likened to ‘penguins’ on posters.

Despite her late mother’s confession, Barker, who grew up in Paignton, Devon, says she was very close to her parents who supported her tennis career despite their financial worries.

“We were naughty,” she says. “We went to a monastery and I put up all those ‘down with penguins’ signs. We have removed and hidden the science room door and also the teacher’s room door and hidden. My parents were often at school.’

In 2020, the BBC faced allegations of sexism and ageism when it fired Barker and her long-running captains Phil Tufnell and Matt Dawson from A Question Of Sport.

Barker says the trio of ‘best friends’ chose not to leave and it has prompted her to reconsider her 30-year association as the face of tennis at the BBC.

She adds: ‘I think the way it was handled reminded me more of Wimbledon and why I wanted to walk away on my own terms then rather than be pushed out the door.

“To be taken to a room after 24 years and told we don’t want you anymore, I wish they’d handled the ending a little better.”

• Desert Island Discs is on BBC Radio 4 today at 11am. It will be repeated Friday at 9am

Barker also reveals that Betty turned 100, despite paying little attention to her health. Pictured: Sue on Desert Island checkers