Laura Kenny shot to fame at the London 2012 Olympics when she won gold for Great Britain and was then snapped kissing her boyfriend Jason, now her husband
Prince Harry had some words of caution for Laura Kenny after he caught her in a passionate embrace with her future husband at the London Olympics.
Kenny, previously Trott, was already a three-time world champion before the 2012 London Olympics. However, she catapulted to fame by securing gold for Team GB in the team pursuit.
The 32-year-old then clinched another gold in the omnium. It was during the subsequent celebrations that she was first photographed with Britain’s most decorated Olympian, Jason Kenny, with the duo later becoming British cycling’s golden couple.
After being snapped kissing Jason, who was her secret boyfriend at the time, at the beach volleyball event behind David Beckham, Kenny revealed to The Times that Prince Harry had offered her a word of warning. She recalled: “Prince Harry was like ‘Ooh you two be careful with all these photographers around.’
“We were like, ‘They are not going to be interested in us.’ Next morning, we were all over the newspapers.”, reports the Express.
The cycling star announced in March that she would not be adding to her five Olympic gold medals after retiring, ending the record-breaking run she shared with her husband Sir Jason.
Last year, the couple welcomed their second son into the family. Kenny admitted that spending time at home was becoming increasingly appealing to her.
She gave birth to her first son in 2017 and suffered a miscarriage in 2021 before undergoing surgery for an ectopic pregnancy at the start of 2022.
“It was horrendous, really difficult,” Kenny recalls about the harrowing time. “The chances of having a miscarriage, then an ectopic, are something like 1 per cent.”
She reflects on the emotional turmoil, saying, “So I kept asking myself, ‘Why do I deserve this?’ For a long time after that I turned in within myself. I just couldn’t speak to anyone; I wasn’t the very open Laura I am normally. I didn’t know how to voice how I was feeling.”
Despite her personal struggles, Kenny put on a brave face before the 2022 Commonwealth Games, admitting she “painted the picture of being the same happy Laura” even though she had broken down in tears with her mother the night before. Yet, she triumphed the next day, clinching gold in the Scratch race.
Reflecting on her victory, she says, “I was just tactically spot-on,”. She pondered her personal challenges and said: “I thought, ‘Why can’t I have that luck in my personal life?’ My body would give me that [cycling success], but it wouldn’t give me the thing I really, really wanted, which was another baby.”
Kenny has had a stellar career, ending as a seven-time world champion and 14-time European champion, with two Commonwealth Games titles under her belt and the title of British National Road Race champion in 2014. But for her, the pinnacle was the 2012 Games in London, which also saw her relationship with Jason come into the limelight.
In a statement made in March, Kenny shared her feelings about retirement: “I always knew deep down I would know when was the right time. I have had an absolute blast but now is the time for me to hang that bike up.
“It’s been in my head a little while, the sacrifices of leaving the children and your family at home is really quite big and it really is a big decision to make. More and more, I was struggling to do that.
“More people asking me what races was I doing, what training camps was I going on I didn’t want to go ultimately and that’s what it came down to. I knew the minute I was getting those feelings. Once I said to Jase, ‘I don’t think I want to ride a bike anymore’, I started to feel relief.”
