Steph McGovern has detailed her "mortifying" experience of having a period leak while in public.
The journalist and presenter, 42, was left on the verge of tears when she began bleeding while on an aeroplane. Steph, who had her own show called Steph's Packed Lunch on Channel 4 until December 2023, admitted she was ‘in full panic mode’ while unable to clean herself up.
Steph, who grew up in Middlesbrough, Teesside, shared her experience with her 128,000 followers on Instagram, on which she was praised for her candid admission. Fans said she should be proud to "normalise" conversations around periods and "sharing the reality" millions face every day.
The presenter wrote: "Like lots of us, I’ve been having painful, heavy periods since I was 12... And that can mean hormones going wild, embarrassing leaks in public, crippling pain at work. Us lasses just put up with it don’t we? Now after 30 years I need a rant about it..."
She recalled boarding a flight to London for work earlier this week, with the intention of going straight into a meeting to discuss a new TV show. However, Mother Nature had other plans as, during the flight, Steph began suffering from stomach cramps.
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Channel 4)The mum was on the fourth day of her period and had taken painkillers, so she "cracked on prepping for work, trying to ignore it." Upon landing, Stephen tried to ignore the "gushing" feeling, as she was wearing both a tampon and a liner, plus, she had black jeans on.
She shared: "Then another more powerful gush came and this time I felt blood running down my leg... I looked down and saw the blood, which was now on my white trainers. I was mortified. Not only was I surrounded by businessmen, I could feel more and more blood coming out. I had no idea what to do. I tried to wipe the blood off my leg and trainers with my coat sleeve hoping no one would notice. Fortunately my coat was long enough to cover my body, but I didn’t know what was coming next."
Steph, who occasionally presented BBC Breakfast between 2012 and 2019, continued: "From the plane I had to get a bus to the terminal and the whole time I was trying not to cry (or get blood anywhere else). Eventually I got to the loo and was able to clean myself up as best I could. Thank god I had some spare knicks and trousers in my case!"
From there, she went to her meeting "pretending nothing had happened" while also "praying it wasn’t going to happen again". Confiding in her fans, she acknowledged that such stories are "familiar" for lots of people, expressing her hatred for how "we end up embarrassed’ about periods because it’s "not our fault".
"I know they are what help us have babies and I am very grateful for my little girl. But honestly 30 years of this (minus the preggers years). It’s a joke," vented the star. She received a huge amount of support from fans on social media, with many thanking Steph for highlighting the issue.
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