The night before England played Nigeria at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, an almighty row broke out in an Adelaide apartment. Kitty, sharing it with Mary Earps’ parents, overheard a conversation she was never meant to hear. Hurtful things were said about her relationship with the England goalkeeper. Earps found out, sorted it, then flew to Brisbane the next morning and was named player of the match.
Mary Earps’ partner is a woman named Kitty. Earps confirmed the relationship publicly on 31 October 2025, telling the BBC she is in a “really happy relationship” and describing Kitty as “the most important person in my life.” The couple live together in Paris, where Earps plays for Paris Saint-Germain.
Table of Contents
Who is Kitty, Mary Earps’ Girlfriend?
Kitty’s first name is all that has been made public, and that is deliberate. Earps has been consistent throughout her career about one thing: the people in her life did not choose public attention when they chose her.
Confirmed details on Kitty:
- Her name is Kitty. No last name has been shared by Earps or reported by any credible outlet.
- The couple live in Paris, where Earps has been based since joining PSG in July 2024.
- Kitty traveled to Australia as part of the England team’s friends and family support group for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
- In a direct interview with ITV News in November 2025, Earps called her “the most important relationship in my life, the most important person in my life.”
Kitty’s age, profession, and background remain private. No verified source has reported on them.
How Did the Relationship Start?
In her memoir, All In: Football, Life and Learning to be Unapologetically Me (Bonnier Books, 2025), Earps writes that she developed strong feelings for Kitty during her years at Manchester United, where she played from 2019 to 2024.
The background to that matters. Before Kitty, Earps had been in a same-sex relationship that her parents did not approve of. The experience left her, in her own words, “paranoid and fearful” about same-sex relationships well into her late 20s — years into a career in which she was already England’s first-choice Lionesses goalkeeper and one of the most recognised athletes in the country.
Being with Kitty shifted things. Earps writes in the memoir that the relationship gave her “security and stability” and credits it directly with an improvement in her performances. By the time the 2023 Women’s World Cup came around, the relationship was well established. Kitty made the trip to Australia as part of the squad’s inner support circle.
The Night Before the Nigeria Game
England vs Nigeria. Round of 16. Brisbane, 7 August 2023.
What never made a single match report was what happened the night before, in Adelaide, where the squad was based during the tournament.
An almighty row broke out in the apartment being shared by Kitty and Earps’ parents. Kitty overheard a conversation between them with hurtful things said about her relationship with their daughter. Earps found out, dealt with it, and traveled to Brisbane the next day.
She was named player of the match.
She spoke about it later to The Guardian, which serialised the memoir ahead of publication:
“People make mistakes and hurt you. But the strength of relationships comes from navigating those moments. We talked and worked through it.”
England went on to reach the final, where Earps saved Jennifer Hermoso’s penalty against Spain. She won the Golden Glove as the tournament’s best goalkeeper, having played every minute of every match. Kitty was in the stands for all of it, unnamed in every account of that summer.
The First Christmas Away From Home
By December 2023, Earps had just been named BBC Sports Personality of the Year. An MBE was on the way. Women’s football was at a level of public attention it had never reached before.
She did not go home to Nottingham for Christmas.
For the first time in her life, she went somewhere else. Barbados, with Kitty.
The memoir notes it without fanfare, but the significance is there. The woman who had spent years carefully managing the line between her private and public life had stopped managing one part of it. Where she spent that Christmas said more than any interview would have.
Why Did Mary Earps Keep Her Relationship Private?
The silence was not rooted in shame. Earps explained her thinking directly to ITV News in November 2025:
“I’ve always tried to keep my personal and professional life separate because I choose this life that has thrown me into the public eye, but the people who are in my life haven’t necessarily. I also want to protect them and keep a little bit of my life just for me.”
The fear carried over from that earlier same-sex relationship also played a part. She writes in the memoir that the experience made her cautious well into her professional career, long after she had established herself at the top of the women’s game. Kitty was the relationship that began to close that gap, but it took time, and the process was not simple.
How Did Mary Earps Come Out Publicly?
On 31 October 2025, six days before All In went on sale, Earps’ management team issued a statement directly to the BBC. She wanted the relationship confirmed on her own terms, not surfaced inside a book review.
Her statement:
“I’ve always tried to keep my personal life separate from my professional one, but it would have felt inauthentic not to include something so important to me in this book. I’m in a really happy relationship. The people closest to me have always known, and I feel ready and happy to share that with everyone else now.”
Her manager, Tina Taylor, said Earps hoped sharing her story would “inspire people around the world to find the confidence to live authentically.”
The memoir covers considerably more than the relationship. Earps writes about childhood bullying, about struggling with alcohol and food during the COVID lockdowns, about depression and anxiety across her career, and about the decision to retire from international football in May 2025 after Sarina Wiegman chose Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton as England’s first-choice goalkeeper ahead of Euro 2025.
She also disclosed, for the first time, that she has had her eggs frozen.
The book’s dedication: “For all those who are still finding the strength to be themselves.”
Sarah Garrett, founder of the British LGBT Awards, said after the announcement that Earps is “a hero and inspirational role model to young women and girls all over the world.”
Who is Mary Earps?
Mary Alexandra Earps MBE was born on 7 March 1993 in Nottingham. She grew up in West Bridgford, attended The Becket School, and earned a degree from Loughborough University while playing professional football at the same time.
Her club career ran through Leicester City, Nottingham Forest, Doncaster Rovers Belles, Birmingham City, Bristol City, Reading, and VfL Wolfsburg in Germany before five years at Manchester United, where she set a Women’s Super League record of 14 clean sheets in a single season and won the FA Cup in 2024.
In July 2024, she signed for Paris Saint-Germain on a two-year deal until June 2026, confirmed by the club’s official announcement. Manchester United had turned down a world-record approach from Arsenal for her the summer before, then lost her for free.
Major honours:
- Euro 2022 winner with England
- 2023 Women’s World Cup Golden Glove
- BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023
- FIFA Best Women’s Goalkeeper 2022 and 2023
- MBE in the 2024 New Year Honours
She earned 53 caps for England before retiring from international football in May 2025. In November 2024, she became the first female professional footballer to have a waxwork at Madame Tussauds London after winning a public vote. On 24 February 2026, she opened a football pitch named in her honour in Calverton, Nottingham.
In August 2023, Kitty sat in the stands in Brisbane as Earps was named player of the match, two days after the row in Adelaide. She does not appear in a single piece of coverage from that summer. She was just someone in the crowd.
The memoir changed that, quietly. Kitty does not get a profile in it. She gets a dedication.
“For all those who are still finding the strength to be themselves.”
She wrote it for others. She had also been writing it for herself for a very long time.
