Kelly Elizabeth Somers was born on 21 December 1990 in Watford, Hertfordshire. She was raised as an avid Watford FC supporter, with her mother and late grandparents holding season tickets at the club. Her father’s name and her parents’ occupations are not publicly available. At the age of nine, during the 1999–2000 football season, she won a writing competition held by the Watford Observer after entering with a 200-word report on Watford’s 1–1 draw with Leicester.

Somers was educated at Parmiter’s School in Watford and gained work experience at the Watford Observer during her summer holidays. She then attended Loughborough University, and was subsequently offered a place at Nottingham Trent University to study for a postgraduate qualification in broadcast journalism — but was also offered a position at AFC Bournemouth. After four years with that club’s media department, she moved to Premier League Productions, then became a freelance reporter.

Somers started by reporting on live games, covering matches for Final Score, Optus Sport, and talkSPORT. In August 2020, she made history as the sixth woman to present Match of the Day, and was also part of the first team to cover a Premier League match on BBC television since 1988.

She now hosts The Football Interview on BBC, bringing the biggest names in sport and entertainment for bold, in-depth conversations about football. She lives in north London with her fiancé Max.