Sue Barker admits she lost tennis trophy after champagne celebration

What did you miss?

Sue Barker has revealed that she lost her French Open trophy just hours after winning it.

The former Wimbledon presenter started her career as a tennis player and in 1976 she won the tournament at the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris. However, she has now admitted that after being served a glass of champagne, she misplaced her trophy.

Barker lost her medal for winning the championship as well as the cup – and neither has ever turned up.

What, how and why?

“Completely lost the trophy and the medal!” she said on BBC’s The One Show. “People gave me champagne… and then I got to the hotel and I thought, ‘I am really going to live it up.’

“I booked into the Posthouse Hotel at Heathrow and then I woke up in the morning, all gone! Didn’t know what had happened… and never replaced!”

In recent years, Barker has been best known for hosting the BBC’s coverage of Wimbledon. She did it for 30 years but stepped down in 2022, saying that it had been “an “absolute privilege”. The star later explained that she wanted to go on her “own terms” rather than ending up getting “pushed out the door”.

The previous year, Barker had exited BBC sports quiz show A Question Of Sport after 24 years, with Paddy McGuinness taking over role. It was announced that hockey player Sam Quek and rugby star Ugo Monye would take over from Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell as team captains.

Barker later said on Desert Island Discs: “Matt and Tuffers, we are like best mates, we had such a bond and we absolutely loved that programme. We were devastated when it came to an end but all good things must come to an end. It wasn’t our choice and we sort of knew it was coming.

“The way it was handled made me think about Wimbledon and the way I wanted to walk away on my own terms rather than be pushed out the door.”

Sue Barker still misses Wimbledon role

Opening up on The One Show, the TV star said she still missed Wimbledon but that she enjoyed going along to watch the tennis as a fan for the first time. “I’ve never been able to watch any of the finals, because I have always been working them,” she explained.

“I loved the job, I miss the job, I miss the people, don’t get me wrong,” she said. “But I loved being a fan as well, just going along there, first day, baseball cap on, I went and queued up for a hotdog, I went and sat on Court 15 and watched these kids battling away, best of three sets, and just loved the whole Wimbledon experience.”

Host Alex Jones asked if Barker’s pass still worked, but she laughed: “They didn’t give me a pass!”

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