That Lionesses Podcast - Mead & Wubben-Moy: Camp Vibes, Bread Chat & Dog Mum Life | That Lionesses Podcast Connected by EE

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Harriet is joined by teammates Beth Mead and Lotte Wubben-Moy to look ahead to the nail-biting quarter-final against Sweden.  The pair lift the lid on life in camp, including a team BBQ, and why the camp chef is looking after Lotte’s mother… Plus they get real about unity within the full squad and their sense of belonging as a Lioness. Follow @lionesses on Instagram, WhatsApp and X, plus @england on TikTok, Facebook and YouTube so you don’t miss a thing! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every single person in this team is so important and you've got to click for that. Yeah, and maybe that's what the clicking epitomises, you know, like you don't see it, but now you see it and you hear it. Yeah, now you see it, now you hear it. Inside info, Stuart, our chef, is looking after my mother. But you're doing that face, it's not the kind of mother you'd think. You've walked right into this one. Is it, are you going to hate me after? Yeah.

Okay, perfect. Well, it's too late now. Those pieces of art will go down in history with some of the best I've ever seen. My Nalisa wants to watch herself. Yeah, she does. Even though she's dead. Hello and welcome to another episode of That Lioness' podcast, Connected by EE. I'm Harriet Rosen. On today's episode, we're looking ahead to the quarterfinal clash with Sweden talking about the importance of belonging as a Lioness and we're getting creative with

a little arty challenge because let's be honest, the players never miss an opportunity to get competitive. And with me are two teammates who work together at both international and club level. It's Beth Mead and Lotta Women Moir. That's a nice welcome. welcome for your first episode. Thank you. This is your first time on the pod. Yeah, you've already had a little debut already. Yep.

How are you both feeling? Good. Yeah, not bad. Barbecue last night, right? How did that go? It was lovely. Yeah, it was a little intense inside. We had a dance tournament.

Oh, I did hear about that. I was waiting to hear what was it that you guys got competitive about at this group event. Yeah, it was a darts tournament. I ended up getting Hempos dad the first round and he was like triple 20s for fun. I thought I'd been stitched here. Right. Knocked out first round I was. He did get to the final and he did win. So that made me feel better. He lost against the winner.

He beat Hempos. Really? He beat Hempel's dad beat Hempel. So was it like dad and player or was it? Just whoever wanted to be involved. Were you in pairs? Um, we just played again, yeah just picked out. Are you a good darts loser or a bad darts loser? I was better after he won. Yeah. I was a bit like, unless you beat me. Yeah he went all the way so I was like okay, okay, fair enough, it's pretty good. I'm not great at that. I also wouldn't have felt good losing, that's why I never play games. I don't get involved in darts, not spike ball.

I was complaining the whole time I was playing. I think I'm a bit like you because I almost don't want to unleash that. I don't want to unleash that side of myself on anyone. You know, like Monopoly can get aggressive. Monopoly deal can get aggressive. That's called breakups for me in the past. Like I can really go ham. You see another side, I'm a business magnate when it comes to Monopoly.

So I can understand the vibe. But I wanted to ask, obviously barbecue, I'm assuming it was cooked by somebody else, but who out of the team, who out of the squad would be the one that's like, I'm cooking the barbecue? Because you know, in a barbecue format, for some reason, there's always someone that's like, no, I'm doing it if anyone tries to come at me.

I think Lucy would be the dad. Yeah. Lucy's dad. Open and straight on. She'd have a system, she'd have it all sorted, yeah. Bronzie would definitely take over that one. It would be like a methodical, would it be well cooked?

I would be questioning the chicken, I think. Yeah, I wouldn't say. I wouldn't want salmon out of it from that. She'd be organised, but who could possibly? I think she'd be too cook for me. You know, I was actually very good at cooking, which you might not put out there? Grace Clinton. Really?

Yeah. Really? Yeah. She's only young. She loves trying out the different dishes as well. Recipes? Yeah. Well the thing is, you've got quite a lot of time, you've not got a lot of time to

sort of focus on cooking and stuff, have you? We've got two chefs with us and we live a life of luxury. Live, laugh, love. We do, yeah. What's the favourite thing you can ask, that you're allowed to ask for from the chef? Yes, chef. To be fair, he has everything out that you don't actually ask for anything. We're very spoiled.

We are very spoiled. Inside info, Stuart, our chef, is looking after my mother. But you're doing that face. It's not the kind of mother you'd think. It's a sourdough starter mother. You're right, because my brother's like what? You got sucked right in there. I was about to cry. Because I bake a lot of sourdough when I'm home.

And sourdough bread that is. And sourdough bread for any of you who don't. I didn't want my mother to leave me. And I didn't want her to miss out on an opportunity of coming to Europe because otherwise she would have died. You know, I wouldn't have, she wouldn't have made it through. Right, let's talk about this because what in the earth, what like, hold on, this is something I vaguely heard about in the pandemic, I've forgotten about since then. Sourdough, you call your sourdough starter mother.

No, this is like a scientific term. Well, I think it's a scientific term. Okay. Because the mother is the birth giver, you know, like she's the one providing. She's like the amoeba then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. First the other amoebas.

You take some of the starter away, some of the mother away, and that's what you add to the sourdough starter, or to the sourdough, and then the mother continues to live. And Stuart, my lovely, lovely chef, is looking after my mother. Right, Football Association, can we please get this woman a bread-making machine whilst we're here in Switzerland? Wow, my bread's a different one.

You didn't know that, did you? No, I kept it on the DL because I think people probably think it's weird. Do you ever call it? I mean, when you didn't give context, it's weird. Do you ever call it? I mean when you didn't give context it was weird Do you ever call her mummy? I actually think I should start using her like a nickname like Moe maybe I quite like her. No, I think mum is nice. Mum. Mummy. Mother Mumsy. Mumsy. Yep. Wow. Okay. So while she's here. Yeah, bread mother. Why is she she? I'm because question power to the women for absolutely good answer God with

Sorry, but why is she here she's here because I thought you can't look after at home So you have to have exactly Stuart look after Stuart's look how long she need looking after every day. She needs to be fed back It's like having a child. My mind's blown right now. You've got Miley, I've got mother. Yeah, okay, fair. Right, some people have dogs, some people have cats. Some have a Miley, some have a mother.

Some have mother. Wow, I don't think we need anything more from the girls, so thanks for watching. That's the end of the podcast. Well, no, I do wish you the best of luck. Thank you. With your mom. Mother. Mommy the best of luck. Thank you. With your mom, mother, mummy. Mom's who?

Chef Stuart. Chef Stuart. Please continue to look after Lotta's mother. I'm going to ask him some questions. Yeah, now I think this is going to unleash a whole thing. She's bubbly and she don't smell great. No, they don't. They don't.

They're like really acidic. Not that I want to speak about your mother in that way. I was going to say, careful. We're going to move on from bread. Yeah, okay. Because I can't talk about your mum the whole air. At the 2023 World Cup, you kept a doodle diary. Yeah. Which I'm obsessed with.

I love your doodles. They're very... Thank you. It's like that when you were at school and then someone could actually draw and everyone else is just drawing that eight that was like in a... Oh, the eight.

Yeah, the eight. Yeah, the eight. Oh, she's actually got skills. You've got skills. Thank you. For those that didn't know about this, can you explain kind of what it was that you were doing? So it was kind of like a diary in a sense. I doodle out the game.

So like say Beth had scored, I doodle how Beth scored or like, you know, she was my muse. And it was kind of a way to translate the game, a 90 minute game. Not many kids want to be watching a 90 minute game or can sit through that. So I thought how nice it would be to be able to, yeah, make it visually appealing and understandable in like a doodle form. She's got skills. She's got her mother. No, but everyone can draw. I always say this, like it's.

You did well, or like simply well. Yeah. Which is quite harder. I was gonna say, that's like saying everyone can sing. That's just not true. It's just not true. True, true. Beth, can you?

I don't wanna talk anymore. Oh, okay. That was embarrassing, then. And that's why we're going to play a game. Are we playing a game? Yeah. On the podcast, right? We're going to play a game, which is where I'm going to give you 60 seconds each to doodle each other.

Oh, fab. You've killed me. No, I've killed Mother. Yeah. You've walked right into this one. Is it... are you going to hate me after? Yeah. Okay, perfect. Well, it's too late now, so my lovely assistant passes me these. You've walked right into this one. Is it, are you gonna hate me after? Yeah.

Okay, perfect. Well, it's too late now, so my lovely assistant passes me these. You can go abstract. That's the best thing about Lottie. Do I, do I, start with me? Beth, it's your interpretation. Do I even start with me?

I think you're making it worse, Lottie. Beth's gonna evil me this whole game. Don't start yet, guys. Give her a head start, Elise, give her a head start. Okay, Beth, you can start now. Lottie, you've only got 10 seconds. Oh, I don't know what to do, and Lottie's gonna be good.

No, just do extra. Beth, this is also a podcast, so people can't actually see what you're drawing. Oh, so true. If you wanna look after Beth, just don't come to the YouTube. Why is this? The camera's here, then.

Right, go. Face for the radio, Beth. I'm really gonna. So I think we've established that Beth isn't super keen on her artistic skills but I think she's actually gonna create something absolutely incredible. Yeah thanks for the support so much. You're welcome. Lota that is beautiful what you're doing. Lota I'm killing you right now. I'm trying to. You know what's gonna happen? I think Beth's gonna go back, find Chef Stewart and kill Mother. Yeah, Mother needs to watch herself.

Mother needs to watch her back. I feel like this is a nice exercise because remember, doodling's just for the passion. It's true. Isn't it? Yeah, and it's your artistic expression. Exactly. No one can take that away from you.

Is that really bad? How long have we got? I've got a strong male text, gonna really... There's no such thing as wrong with art. No one can take that away from you. Is that really bad? How long have we got? There's no such thing as wrong with art. Don't you tell me what. We're actually staying in a hotel where apparently, Beth I'm giving you lots more hair than you actually have. Sorry, can't reply.

No, I've actually got the nerve. You're a nasty woman today. Oh, I forgot, my producer just reminded me you've actually run out of time. Oh, right then. Well, I've actually drawn nothing. The hotel we're staying in is like... An art gallery. Art gallery, yeah. The owner apparently, or whoever bought it, said he wanted to buy it so he could store all of his art. I can't believe it.

He's got a solo it, anyone who knows that. I'm going letting Beth have another couple of minutes. Beth, you don't have any eye... I did stop the clock about 40 seconds ago. Look, I don't know why I've just put a bun on the top of your head because you don't have a bun on the top of your head. But... You also don't have this much eye. Are you laughing at me?

Right. Beth, Beth at mine? Right. Beth, Beth, it's okay. I really want you to not hate me after this. I'm not going to hate me after this. But you're going to start by showing us your drawing. If I'm wrong right now, this is stupid. What do you mean wrong? There's no wrong.

Oh wow. I like that. And that we call... I'm sorry. I like it Picasso. I've got the lip job. Wonderful. Beth, that's sick.

That is stunning. And Lotta, what are your official sort of artistic words for that? I think it's very modern art. I'm just trying to be artsy for you. Yeah, I like how you've integrated like different layers of the tournament, you know, my barn. The lips look fantastic my number my shirt number fabulous shirt number I think that is actually like that give it a rating out of 10 daughter it's a 22 absolutely correct

now lots of would you like to show us your drawing of Beth. I can't tell you. Have I got a fringe? No. That's your hair scraped. That's very pretty and I see. I did when I was younger. I think you both did really well. Beth how much are you rating this beautiful piece of work from Lotta? It looks like a eight-year-old me so let's rate it an eight. Eight out of ten and you got 22 out of ten so in theory you won this game. Thanks so much. Congratulations. I've just had a good idea. Beth has this inspired you to take a foray into art whilst you're here in Switzerland?

Do you know what, do you know the little New England books we've got? I have been doodling in them. Have you? That makes me so happy. Yeah, you've inspired me to do that. But it shan't be going anywhere. No, good. It's only for you. We are hanging that in the Louvre. That one right there.

I'd tell you that for free. That is beautiful. Thank you. See look, she wants to keep it frame it. I just wish I'd done your hair a bit more just to say I wanted to show you bun so you didn't look bald. No, it's fine. It's very difficult to draw a high-air tied back. Yeah, I agree. I often have my hair off, you know what I mean? I often look like I have no hair sometimes. Oh, me too, don't worry. You're both absolutely fantastic and beautiful and stunning

and those pieces of art will go down in history as some of the best. Mona Lisa wants to watch herself. Yeah, she does, even though she's dead. Gosh. even though she's dead. Oh gosh. I've also seen some beautiful writing that you've been doing. Yes.

I love it. I've been doing my tutus. Very cool. Yeah, it's an old like Trinidad and Tobago saying of like tutus means like in a jiffy, say something quick. So I've been trying to like summarize different things. I didn't do the doodle diary this year because Beth's doing my doodling for different things. I didn't do the doodle diary this year because Beth's doing my doodling for me.

Well, Beth's doing the doodle diary this year. She is, which will not be shared. So I thought I'd do, I really, I love words. So I wanted to, yeah, do the two-twos. Well, if you ever fancy doing some, something for the podcast, we would love it. Can you write us something about, maybe about how much Beth hates me now that she's been here for 10 minutes.

I mean. Yeah, me and mother. This is an aggressive podcast. You know what, I'm quite used to it because I've had, we've done a lot of games on this show and there is always a loser and they always hate me. Brilliant. By the end and I'm actually fine with that.

Not slept any nights since she's been here. Not one, sleeping with one eye open, I'm actually fine with that. I've slept any nights. Not one sleeping with one eye open. I'll take that for free. Switching up the vibe a little bit. I want to talk about what it's like to be a lioness because that is obviously not only very cool, but also having been alongside you guys whilst you're in this process. It's like one of them I'm feel honored. Like I've said this a few times, it's such an honour to be here, to watch you, such incredible talented people do your thing. Lotte, you get to represent your

country doing what you love. How would you describe that in three words? Three words, well, I think I feel very privileged, honoured and I think you don't get to experience this much let alone I don't know how many tournaments you've been part of but this is my third tournament and it's three words, three tournaments, it's beautiful. Yeah it's incredible and Beth you've been with the team seven years now. How have you seen the team? How old am I now? And you were 17 now so that's incredible. And Beth, you've been with the team seven years now. So long. How have you seen the team? At my age now, wow. And you were 17 now, so that's good.

Yeah, true. Seven years. Got younger. Just got, it's like Benjamin Button. Yeah. But you've been with the team seven years. How have you seen the team evolve as a group and you being such a huge part of that as well? I mean, this seven years has really crept upon me.

I've gone from like being a baby to now one of the oldest, which is crazy. And you're still extremely young. We've got a young team to be fair, I would say. I think it's been nice to see the evolution of the game in that time. I remember my debut actually, it was pretty, it was in 2018 and it was actually against Wales and we drew

0-0 in a qualifying game and it was obviously bittersweet so I just got my debut but obviously we were very disappointed because it's a game we should have won and there was 30,000 people there but that was so alien at that time like that that happened and like Lotta said I felt very privileged and honored to be able to do that in front of obviously so many people but there's so many games where people have made us so irrelevant or they've not cared about the game and to see where the team's at now you know most of the girls well actually every girl now playing full-time professional football in front of record crowds again this tournament.

Smashing them all. Smashing it, it's smashed before even the last group games. Which again, we've still got so many new heights to reach but I feel very privileged and it's very special to have seen that journey and being a part of that journey. And you have been such a huge part of that journey. Which is so cool. And it's extremely inspiring as someone

who is not a footballer, I know you probably were looking at me thinking, she definitely should be playing. It's just so inspiring to see the change in my lifetime to watching and being at the games and seeing the young people there thriving and watching you guys do incredibly well. What's pretty amazing about this group is

it's more than just a squad of 23 players. You have incredible value standards and you're playing for something more and it's really clear. Where does that drive come from, do you think? I think every single individual in the team has overcome barriers to be where they are. Let's not forget, the game game is 50 years behind the men and looking at that as something that isn't holding us

back but actually propelling us forward because we have a greater sense of purpose, a greater sense of doing it for more than us as individuals and I think we all try to embody that when we step out onto the pitch, doing it for our friends, as individuals. And I think we all try to embody that when we step out onto the pitch, doing it for our friends, family, but the fans. And you said you were at the game on Sunday, the atmosphere that is created, not just amongst a rivalry, but like a unity between all the fans that we feel.

And we feel it in our bones. And that's what allows you to be more than just 20 free players out on the pitch and that drives you on to keep wanting more not just winning but also pushing barriers elsewhere in the world. And it's an energy thing like I was outside the stadium just before the game and there were some Wales fans and some England fans and they were doing that we're at each other and then they all hugged and I nearly cried.

I was like, cause that's the energy. You want to go to a game where you feel safe but you also feel that competitive edge and it really was epitomized there. Beth, I know you girls are taking it one step at a time right now but I would love you to cast your mind forward and I know this is probably something

that's already solidified for you with the experience you have but do you think there are friends you've made at England that you'll keep for life like you're going to be pensioners with each other sitting around talking about these games you know? Yeah I think most of I mean my friends that I've had through life have been family away from family so I have a lot of girls here that I will definitely be keeping in touch with for a very, very long time, which again, feel very lucky to have them type of people

and be on this journey with. So yeah, I've known a lot of them since they were a lot younger. I mean, me and Alex Green would have gone through every age group together pretty much from under 15s up. So we've had a journey together. So I think sometimes you unite through them journeys because like I said,

they're not always easy. We play for England and we love playing for England, but youth probably wasn't the easiest journeys for all of us in different ways. Being away from family, travelling to different countries when you're young, expectation. But yeah, very much so. We'll be pensioners talking about this footballing journey for a long time. And you've kind of been in, both been in the journey when it's changed so much, like you say your youth experience is going to be very different to the youth experience now. Yeah. And that is something to be so incredibly proud of. I mean let's not forget like

you were at Sunderland and Sunderland, what league are they in now? They're in the championship but they actually ended up... Kind of stripped right? Yeah, I mean you think of all the players that came from Sunderland. That's one of the big reasons I had to leave because the men got relegated twice in a row. And Beth, you joined Arsenal when I was there when I was like 16 and like, Beth, you were top scorer in the WSL. Yeah, for some of them at the time, yeah.

It's just mad to think, yeah, the games come on so far, but the disparity between the top and the bottom is still huge and I don't know, the pyramid that we speak about so often, it's so important to continue to raise the floor as much as we are raising the ceiling. We're taking that on and speaking on behalf of I think the ones coming through, but also pushing the barriers and the boundaries

of like professional football as a whole. Like it's pretty sick. And I'm proud of you like to have come through that and be now like, yeah, a legendary Lioness. It's pretty sick. That's a beautiful thing to hear. Yeah, thanks a lot. And if you want to know more about how football can support you, then please search EE Squad now,

because we've not got that much time left. We've got to talk about Thursday, quarterfinal again. Oh, big. We mentioned yesterday on the pod that they're a team to be feared What do you see as the biggest challenges that they pose? Physicality physicality powerful fast attacking football. Yeah, obviously we know Steen obviously, yeah from Arsenal Yeah, we we know what we're in for hopefully we can nullify that best as a team but it's always a tough game against Sweden. We've played them a lot of times in tournaments especially and I think not that people underestimate

them but they always are successful in tournaments and people sometimes I think write them off a little bit too early when they're a team that just goes by the business and they look pretty good against Germany every night so I think we know what we've got coming but it's gonna be tough. Bef you've had a great tournament so far in the last game against Wales you came off the bench and BAM scored. Quite literally, are you? Literally. You've been...

Yeah. What's that? I heard about the snaps. I heard it's a thing. What the snaps? This is so funny because basically we had some of the players on talking about the snaps, right? Meya was being like, oh yeah, we do this thing, snaps.

Then the following day we had Tooni on who was like, started snapping immediately. She was like, I'd never heard of it. And then when she asked about it, they were like, oh no, it's just like a bench thing. So she was getting involved and she kind of wasn't allowed. But now it's a thing and half of you didn't even know about it and I'm obsessed. Yeah, it's like our bench aura I think and just try to like give a bit.

Aura, yeah. Energy, like you spoke about energy, it's just energy. And it was really fab because we were obviously right, we were sort of stood, sat right above you and we could see you all doing the snaps. Yeah. And but you could see, because we'd had the girls on the podcast that day

and I'd chatted about it. And then we were seeing it in real life and everyone else was like, Oh, what are they doing? What's going on? And it's every time it's amazing. It's iconic. But Beth, I wanted to ask you,

was how important is it, you know, you got on the pitch, you scored straight away. It was an incredible game. How important is it being a game changer, regardless of whether you're starting or not? We've all got a part to play regardless if you get on the pitch if you don't and ultimately it's your job to come on and try and make a difference and yeah I think obviously me and Aigs as well I mean every girl that came on the pitch made a difference but it's nice to obviously be

able to get on you know get a, feel good, get an assist, help the team progress in the tournament. So it's nice to play your part in that way as well. And like you say, that every single player that is here is playing a huge part in keeping everything in the position it's in, the morale, the energy. What's that? Lockdown.

Yeah, lockdown. We underestimate, I think, squad value. All people on the outside underestimate squad value. You know, it's not always the easiest job being a player that might not get minutes or as many minutes as they'd like. You have to be on the pitch the day after a game when you're on the high of a game and the other girls are in the gym recovering or getting a massage and building yourself back up. It's a late night, the kickoff's at nine o'clock, you don't get a great sleep, but you try to push to keep yourself in the best position in case you're needed,

or you need to push to start in 11. You're pretending to be a Swedish player and you try to do bits that they do because that helps the team in the long run. I think as outsiders perspective really underestimate the value of full 23, not just the 11 on the pitch or maybe the ones that get a go. I think every single person in this team is so important and you've got a click for that. Yeah and maybe that's what the clicking epitomises you know like you don't see it but now you see it. Yeah. Hear it. Yeah now you see it now you hear it. What a beautiful place to end the pod because you're so right and I't see it, but now you see it and you hear it. Yeah, now you see it, now you hear it.

What a beautiful place to end the pod. Because you're so right, and I can see it, that's one of the beautiful things I've seen being alongside you all is just the incredible team spirit and the energy and the synergy you guys have. So I cannot wait for the next game. I'm so excited. Beth and Lotta, thank you so much for joining us.

It's been a beautiful episode. This has been that Lioness's podcast, connected by EE. Wishing you the best of luck in the game ahead. Us, the fans in Switzerland and at home have all got your back 100%, all 23 of you. It is set to be an unmissable quarterfinals, so grab your friends, maybe some popcorn or some mother for if you,

if you're a sourdough. Have a slice of sourdough. Have a slice of sourdough and get ready for the game because you do not want to miss the kickoff at 8 p.m. BST on Thursday night. Okay, bye!