Heroic LGBTQ+ England star Lucy Bronze’s life off the pitch explored
Away from the limelight, Lucy Bronze loves to travel the world and walk her adorable West Highland Terrier (Instagram: Lucy Bronze)
Away from the limelight, Lucy Bronze loves to travel the world and walk her adorable West Highland Terrier (Instagram: Lucy Bronze)
Lucy Bronze has again lifted a Euros trophy with the Lionesses, proving she is a true footballing legend, and her partner, family and adorable dog will no doubt be keen to celebrate her win with her when she returns home,
When she’s not sacrificing her body for the game or taping her own hamstring to play, her life off the pitch is also a testament to her incredible character.
The 33-year-old defender was one of the star players of this year’s Euros, as she always has been! Lifting the trophy again, retaining their Euro 2022 winning title, Bronze is also a star outside of football.
Lucy Bronze enjoys walks with her sweet little dog, Narla
Lucy Bronze owns a West Highland Terrier called Nayla, and frequently posts selfies and footage of their adventures together.
She spent Christmas at Disneyland Paris…
…and would have had no issue with communicating there: she is multilingual
Bronze is multilingual and can speak four languages in total: English, Portuguese, Spanish and French.
She began learning French while she played for Lyon. Previously, she began learning Spanish, knowing she would be playing for Barcelona.
During her time at the Spanish club, she did not use an interpreter.
Furthermore, she has noted that her fluency in Portuguese and French helped when she was still learning Spanish.
Bronze was brought up bilingual thanks to her Portuguese father and her English mother.
Bronze has been diagnosed with autism and ADHD
Lucy was diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) back in 2021, but she only shared this publicly for Neurodiversity Celebration Week (March 17 to 23) in 2025.
Since childhood, Bronze has struggled to sleep, and at school, she struggled to read and spell, leading her to be diagnosed with dyslexia.
In adulthood, Bronze struggles to make eye contact with people during conversation and has a habit of touching her hair during games
“People think ‘she’s always messing about’, but that’s just me calming myself down without even realising it,” Bronze told the BBC earlier this year.
Speaking about her diagnoses, she shared: “It didn’t change anything essentially, but it was a bit of an eye opener.
“I just learned more about myself, understood why in certain situations I saw things differently to other people or acted in a different way to other people.”
Bronze also added she now sees her autism as one of her strengths as a player. She explained: “People always say, ‘Oh, you’re so passionate about football’. I don’t know if I’d say I’m passionate, I’m obsessed. That’s my autism, it’s my hyper-focus on football”
“Something that is really good for ADHD and autism is exercise. Having that focus, something to do, keeping moving.
“Training every day is amazing for me. Some of the other girls will be like: ‘Are you sure you’re 33 because you don’t stop?’ All the things I have because of autism have worked in my advantage.”
Bronze is a proud auntie
Bronze has shared she has a very close relationship with her family, and that includes her older brother, Jorge.
She regularly posts pics of Jorge’s children, her five-year-old nephew, Freddie, and her three-year-old niece, Alzira.
The young children have been present at all of Bronze’s Euro matches, often appearing on broadcasts wearing headphones and on their iPads.
The pair also joined Bronze on the pitch to celebrate after the game and roll around in the golden confetti.
Speaking to the Mirror about her bond with her niece and nephew, Bronze joked: “Freddie thinks that Aunty Lucy’s house is a stadium. He actually says that.
“I think they just think it’s super normal to go on four week holidays to football matches and have your dad scream at 22 women running around the field. They just think that’s really normal.”
“I think they’re still not old enough, but they absolutely love coming and we have a lot of young family members in the different families now, and I think it’s that’s nice to share moments with them and they were both, obviously they were mascots in our last game, even though technically they weren’t old enough, but it was fine.
Lucy Bronze is no stranger to the tattoo parlour
Despite having a phobia of needles, Bronze has several tattoos.
She has a wrist tattoo that is made up of numerous tats. The first is a trio of stars which she and her Tar Heels teammates all got after winning the championship in 2009.
Then, a few years later, she added to the stars with designs she drew herself. She wrote the word ‘familia’, Portuguese for ‘family’, to reflect her origins.
She also has a puzzle piece tattoo on the back of her arm.
Who is Lucy Bronze’s partner?
There are lots of out LGBTQ+ players in the Lioness squad and Lucy Bronze is one of them. Through, she has historically remained rather private about her dating life.
However, many have speculated that Bronze is dating Spanish player Ona Battle, who was her teammate at Barcelona.
The pair sat down on the pitch together after the final whistle, with Battle gently stroking her cheek.
Then, after the trophy lift, Battle came back out on the pitch, having changed into a tracksuit to accompany Bronze in the celebrations.
Previously, the pair have enjoyed vacationing together ahead of the Euros as well as holidays in Paris and the trip to Disneyland. mentioned above.
Though Bronze may not have spoken about her personal life extensively, when Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol joked about being gay on Twitter, she stated that their comments show football still needs better education on sexuality.
Commenting on the “joke”, Bronze said: “‘But I think the reaction that has been had on social media in general, from not knowing what it was to thinking it was a joke to being hacked…the reaction just shows that there still needs a lot of education, openness on these kind of subjects because that kind of reaction wasn’t normal.”
You can read all our coverage for the 2025 Women’s Euros here.
