NAUGHTY BOYS
I have to play mum to two big kids – Ally McCoist and Alan Brazil, admits talkSPORT favourite
The mum of four-year-old twins will be keeping order again when the morning squad descend on Germany
SHEBAHN Aherne is roughly half the age of talkSPORT show hosts Ally McCoist and Alan Brazil — but sometimes it feels like she’s the only adult in the studio.
The sports presenter, who joined the station in 2021, has become a firm favourite with listeners as she joins in the playground banter between the two Scotland legends.
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And the mum of four-year-old twins will be keeping order again when the morning squad, including Ally, 61, and Alan, 64, descend on Germany for the Euros where Shebahn will be talkSPORT’s Scotland reporter.
The 33-year-old says: “I have got my two kids at home and I have my two grown-up kids at work. I definitely feel like I’m the more sensible one in the studio at times. And I reckon I will have to wear my mother’s hat when we’re in Germany too.”
Shebahn looks remarkably fresh-faced for someone who has been up since 2.30am when we chat over a video call after coming straight from the studio with breakfast show host Jeff Stelling.
She says: “Jeff is such a professional sports broadcaster. Although today he told me he has seven cats. That blew my mind — I never had him down for being a crazy cat man.”
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Although still fairly new to listeners down south, the presenter, from Glasgow’s Drumchapel, made her name as travel reporter Shebahn Littlejohn on Radio Clyde’s George Bowie show when she was still a teenager.
She says: “I began at Clyde on work experience when I was 16 and decided to do an HNC in radio, which was two days a week at college. But the college days always fell on the days I had work with Clyde. So I managed to somehow fail a radio course while working in radio.
“By 19 I was doing the travel, which I did for the next three years.”
Shebahn’s radio stardom even led to appearing in two pantos at Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre, but then in December 2013 she quit Clyde at of 22 to try her luck in London with her Dublin-born hubby Jamie.
And it was Lorraine Kelly who offered a helping hand to a new career behind the scenes in TV.
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Shebahn explains: “Lorraine knew my producer at Clyde so she arranged for me to come and watch her in the studio then afterwards we went for a coffee.
“She told me, ‘My advice to you is keep your fingers in lots of pies. So keep in at radio while you try and get your foot in the door here’.
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“At that point ITV were about to launch Good Morning Britain and later that very same day Lorraine sent me a link for the role of green room host, where you had to welcome all the guests coming in for the show.
"I applied and got the job and would get to greet people like Bradley Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres.
"I never get starstruck, probably because I was used to people popping into the studio at Clyde.
"But the only time I was ever left truly speechless was when I got into a lift with Brian Capron who played nasty Richard Hillman in Coronation Street.
“It’s so funny that I never had any problem with Hollywood superstars but it was Richard Hillman that took me aback.”
Shebahn worked her way up to becoming a producer before a “complicated pregnancy” meant she needed a change of pace before her twins Brooks and Reavah — who are five in July — were born.
But she decided to return to broadcasting, first with Heart while also providing the idents for Glasgow-based station Go Radio.
Then Shebahn — whose twin sister Ruesha Littlejohn plays for London City Lionesses — approached talkSPORT as a women’s football correspondent.
She was soon doing the morning newspapers review before moving to talkSPORT2, then last year she travelled for the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
As a TV reporter she also covers the Women’s Champions League for DAZN, while her regular slot on Sky’s Match Day Sunday Show even earned her an appearance on the latest episode of the Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney hit Disney show Welcome To Wrexham.
But this season she returned to the Breakfast Show where every Wednesday it becomes “Glasgow FM” when she is reunited with her fellow Scots Alan and Ally.
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She says: “When the three of us are together, we all become even more Glaswegian.
"They are such a laugh. Everyone asks me what is it like working with them. I feel like a competition winner in there as I get to have the most fun ever with two absolute legends. I’m really lucky.
“Although sometimes people message, ‘When are you lot going to get back to talking about sport?’. And I’m thinking, ‘Lighten up — we’re just having fun’.”
But at the start Ally and Alan did struggle with Shebahn’s name, which, as she explains, is pronounced like the Ricky Martin song She Bangs.
She says: “My mum’s side of the family are Irish and she told me she had given me an Irish name. But I was an Irish dancer for years and travelled everywhere for competitions and never met an Irish Shebahn in my life.
“My twin sister is Ruesha so we both have unusual names. I just wasn’t as brave as my parents when it came to naming our two.”
However, Shebahn does have a dilemma going to Germany — just what will she do if Scotland advance from the group stages for the first time?
Because that would mean hubby Jamie, 40, who works in sports management, would be left at home with the twins.
She says: “I’m really lucky that I’m able to do these work trips. Don’t get me wrong, it’s difficult being away from the kids.
“But if Scotland do get out of the group I think my husband and kids will just have to come and join me over there.”
EUR VIEW
WE put Shebahn on the spot:
Favourite Scotland player of all time? Ally McCoist.
Favourite current Scotland player? Scott McTominay.
Favourite Scotland manager? Steve Clarke.
Best Scotland memory? Qualifying for Euro 2020 with the penalty shoot out save from David Marshall.
Worst Scotland memory? Not qualifying for all the major tournaments.
Prediction for Germany match: 1-1
Prediction for the group: Draw, loss against Switzerland, win against Hungary and get out the group.
And while Shebahn will be on the road in Germany following the Scotland team she knows it will be business as usual dealing with two Scotland legends in the studio.
She says: “Alan and Ally always chuck it at me. But I’m thick skinned. I’m from Drumchapel so I can handle it. They’re always such a giggle it’s almost endearing when they slag me off.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
“But I love this job and I love being back on radio — I just can’t wait for the kick-off in Germany.”
- For more information on talkSPORT at Euro 2024 visit talksport.com/football
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