Best known for her efforts on the pitch, Jill Scott has made a splash in the world of British reality TV since her retirement from football in 2022.
She won the twenty-second series of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in November 2022, becoming the first LGBTQ+ woman to win the crown.
The following year, she became a captain on the panel show A League Of Their Own. And this week, she appeared on Sunday Brunch.
Before she retired from football, Jill got an MBE. In the same year – 2020 – she announced her engagement to long term partner Shelly Unitt. Here’s all we know about the couple’s decade-long relationship.
Jill Scott and fiancée Shelly Unitt have been together for about 10 years
Or, pretty close to a decade.
They appear to have started dating around 2016.
Shelly and Jill celebrated their fourth Christmas together during the first year of covid, and have been happily together since.
They became engaged in March 2020. Jill made an announcement via Instagram on March 17, featuring a picture of her left hand holding a mug of coffee – and wearing an engagement ring.
The caption read simply, “The best coffee so far”. Fans got the hint, sending their congratulations in the hundreds and thousands.
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But life has a knack for getting in the way
Jill spoke to OK! magazine in October 2023, a year on from her retirement from professional football (and winning I’m A Celeb).
She told the magazine she was “ready for some time off and spending it with my friends and family,” but admitted she also misses “the game”.
Among the things she imagined, at the time, that she’d have more time for, was wedding planning.
“It’s been so busy that [Shelly and I are] like passing ships at times,” she said. “But we’re definitely starting to think about what we want to do. We’ve been engaged for nearly four years now, but with covid and lockdown happening, we sort of lost momentum for a while.”
Make that five years, now!
“But Shelly and I have finally been making some wedding plans and we’re definitely in the swing of things now,” she clarified. So, keep your ear out for an announcement.
Shelly Unitt runs a coffee shop and has two children
Shelly and Jill bought a coffee shop in Manchester in April 2021 and named it BOXX2BOXX.
The name is a reference to Jill’s on-pitch role as a box-to-box midfielder during her football career.
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Born in May of 1985, Shelly will turn 40 this year. She has two daughters, Hattie and Evie. Last year, she posted on Instagram to celebrate Evie’s graduation from university. Evie turned 21 in June.
Besides running the cafe, Shelly is a community health officer for Walsall Housing Group, a nonprofit that aims to provide affordable homes across the Midlands.
Per Diva magazine, Jill told her I’m A Celebrity campmates that the couple spent two years struggling to see much of each other, due to work and travel commitments.
“When I was with Shelly, for two years I was travelling,” she said. “She was in Walsall, so some days I was up at 6am trying to get a train in. I didn’t do it all the time.”
With a bit of luck, 2025 will grant them the time to get their affairs in order!
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