Dame Laura Kenny is showing us a photo on her phone. She looks radiant in a yellow Jenny Packham dress and is standing outside Windsor Castle with her husband, cyclist Sir Jason Kenny, and their four-year-old son Albie, wearing matching yellow ties, moments after receiving her damehood.
"Deep down I wanted it to be Prince William if I could pick any royal other than the Queen," says Laura, still giddy from the ceremony last month in which Jason was also knighted for his services to cycling. "Will said to me that he thought the honour had been a long time coming for Jason and me. He also said he'd seen my Instagram post about my miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. That was very emotional - I wasn't expecting that at all."
The five-time Olympic gold medalist was back on top of the podium in April at a cycling championship in Derby for the first time since bringing home gold at the Tokyo Olympics in August 2021. It was a bittersweet moment because Laura and Jason had secretly been trying for a baby, knowing her maternity window was tight should she want to compete at Paris 2024. The day after they got back from Japan, the 30-year-old came off the Pill and cycling's golden couple were overjoyed when they discovered Laura was pregnant a month later.
"We were at home and Jason was like, 'Well done!' when we saw the pregnancy test was positive," she says, during our shoot in Manchester. "We were both so excited. When we had Albie, I was a bit panicked because I was terrified it was going to end my career, but this time it was different as I knew I'd done it before and I could get back to Olympic standard."
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