Bobby Moore's ex-wife and daughter speak out about their fight to retrieve his World Cup winning shirt: 'That top meant everything to Bobby - he'd never have given it away'

By REBECCA HARDY FOR THE DAILY MAIL Published: 00:53, 4 July 2026 | Updated: 00:58, 4 July 2026 Tina, the first wife of legendary footballer Bobby Moore, understands more than most the sheer pride in King and country that overwhelmed England captain Harry Kane this week. As he kissed the Three Lions badge on his shirt to celebrate scoring two crucial goals against DR Congo in the World Cup – keeping England's hopes alive – Kane's joy was unconfined. 'To wear that shirt as captain of England was one of the greatest honours of Bobby's life,' Tina says. 'Like Harry, he loved his country – loved playing for England.  When they won the World Cup he was so proud, so euphoric. That shirt meant everything to him which is why he would never, never have given it away or lost it.' Indeed. The image from 1966 of England captain Bobby in his red jersey, hoisted high on the shoulders of his teammates with the World Cup trophy held aloft, stands as the most iconic in the history of English football. He was so proud of his No 6 shirt that Tina can remember him fetching it from the locked attic at the family home in affluent Chigwell, Essex, where it was kept in a zippered sports bag with his boots, to show it to friends. Somehow, though, the shirt went missing more than a quarter of a century ago and ended up in the hands of an unknown private buyer.  Today, Tina, who is 83, is embroiled in a deeply distressing legal battle to recover it. Bobby Moore's ex-wife Tina, 83, pictured with their daughter Roberta, 61, is embroiled in a in a deeply distressing legal battle to recover Moore's 1966 World Cup shirt With the support of her daughter, Tina today launched a legal action to recover the No 6 shirt Bobby Moore holdng the old World Cup trophy while being carried by his teammates after beating West Germany 4-2 As my colleague Sam Greenhill exclusively reveals today, Tina, supported by her daughter with Bobby, Roberta, 61, has now launched a High Court action to try to bring it home. We three meet in the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington as England prepare to face Mexico in a bid to win a place in the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup. Tina can't help but be moved. For it was here, 60 years ago, that the England team were met by a euphoric crowd of more than 6,000 fans who gathered outside the swish hotel where the players had convened to celebrate their historic victory with a banquet. Much has happened since, including Tina and Bobby's divorce in 1986 after he left her for air hostess Stephanie Parlane and Bobby's desperately sad death in 1993 from bowel cancer at the age of 51. But the decades seem to melt away as Tina, stylish in a colourful, loose-fitting linen lounge suit, returns to a place alive with so many wondrous memories. So much so, you sense she feels Bobby by her side and can still hear the chants of 'For he's a jolly good fellow' that rang out all those years ago when he kissed the Jules Rimet trophy, the forerunner to the current World Cup trophy, on the first-floor balcony of the Royal Garden Hotel before kissing her. 'They were totally different days – better days,' she says. 'It was a great time to be young. We were all swept up in a euphoria. The Pill. Mini skirts.  An iconic photograph of Bobby Moore swapping shirts with Brazilian football legend Pele in 1970 Queen Elizabeth II pictured presenting the World Cup trophy to England captain Bobby Moore as the Duke of Edinburgh watches on Moore pictured on holiday with Tina and their two children Dean and Roberta 'Britain was booming and everybody was so much happier. There was hope. We had nothing like the fabulous wealth footballers have now, but we had the best of times. 'Bobby was fun – so much fun. We laughed a lot. He could be very naughty, but, at the core of him, he was the most honourable man.' She looks out of the window at the street below where the sheer number of people who gathered all those years ago brought the traffic to a standstill. Reminders of the good times and the bad come flooding back. She was 'heartbroken' when their marriage ended, and never stopped loving Bobby. 'It took me years to get over him. At least ten years,' she says. 'I used to go out with people and they'd say, "How can we follow Bobby?" 'I went to Miami to try to start again and had a couple of other relationships, but I'd dream about him a lot. 'I think he is around me. They do say spirits visit you when you sleep, don't they? I never stopped loving him.'  Nor will she stop in her quest to reclaim the World Cup shirt he prized so dearly. The Three Lions badge has been worn by our country's national team since their first official international match against Scotland in 1872, but the symbol has deeper roots stretching back to the 12th century when, after Henry II added a third lion to his crest, it was adopted as the royal arms by every monarch. Every English Lion wears it with immeasurable pride. To think of this iconic shirt behind Perspex glass on someone's wall hidden from the British public is deeply troubling to Bobby's family, who only discovered it was missing when Tina helped arrange an auction of Bobby's memorabilia in 2000.  Also gone from the attic was the yellow shirt worn by Pele which Bobby had famously swapped with the Moore with his wife Tina at Buckingham Palace after he received his OBE Harry Kane celebrating next to Jude Bellingham after scoring the equaliser against the Democratic Republic of Congo at the World Cup 2026 Kane running to celebrate after scoring the winning goal against the DR Congo putting England through to the round of 16 Brazilian legend for his own white shirt after England lost to them in the group stages of the 1970 World Cup. Yet Tina's frantic search, which began with her calling anyone who might know their whereabouts, is far from over. On Thursday, the family lodged papers at the High Court naming Neville Evans, Britain's biggest collector of football memorabilia, as being either the person in possession of the famous red jersey or someone who can help them recover it. Evans, who is from Wales, was a co-author of the book Three Lions On A Shirt: The Official History Of The England Football Jersey, which was commissioned by the Football Association.  When the FA contacted Bobby's family in 2021 to tell them the coffee table book was to feature Bobby's red shirt, Tina, who'd searched high and low for it for more than two decades, instructed her lawyer to investigate. Bobby's iconic shirt was subsequently dropped from the book and the FA told Tina that the private buyer wished to remain anonymous so they couldn't help her discover its whereabouts. Following pleas from the family for the buyer to come forward, a source close to Mr Evans, understood to be his cousin, told a newspaper he had seen the shirt in Mr Evans' £2million mansion in west Wales. But, when a solicitor acting for the Moore family wrote to him, Mr Evans' lawyers responded without saying whether or not he had the shirt. While there is no suggestion that Mr Evans, a well-respected dealer in sporting memorabilia, acquired the shirt illegally, the papers are demanding he hands it back or reveals what he knows. Mr Evans will be legally required to file a 'defence' to the claim setting out his position. If he does not, he would lose by default and potentially be asked to pay a sum of money equal to the value of the missing shirt. The No 6 shirt is estimated to be worth more than £1million, which seems a modest amount given the shirt worn by Diego Maradona during the infamous 'Hand of God' World Cup in 1986 sold for £7.14 million four years ago. But you only have to spend a few minutes with Tina and Roberta to appreciate their mission has nothing to do with money. England's starting XI against DR Congo at Atlanta Stadium on July 1 which saw the three lions win 2-1 England will now face against Mexico in the round of 16 to fight for a place in the quarter finals To Bobby's family, at least, the shirt is priceless. Roberta, who had an 'extraordinary bond' with her father, says they've been met with nothing but a 'troubling wall of silence' as they've tried to track down the shirt. 'The narrative has become that Dad was so generous he'd give shirts away, which he did, but never the shirt from that World Cup final,' says Roberta. 'As far as we are aware, the only people who knew the identity of the owner of the shirt other than the collector himself, are the publishers Vision. 'We've approached them but they've never responded. When you just get met by a wall of silence again and again, when you raise questions that continually go unanswered, what are you supposed to deduce? It's troubling. 'Wouldn't you think that if someone is asked if they have the shirt or not, and they have it legitimately, they'd just say 'Yes' or 'No'? Why would you not be open? Why would you not put it on display for the public?' Roberta is a sparky, thoroughly likeable woman who loved her father dearly. When she was a baby she suffered with colic so Bobby used to drive her around to calm her and a deep bond was forged. So much so that, when she was '17 or 18' and her parents' marriage was falling apart after he fell in love with his second wife Stephanie, he would, she tells me, 'bare his soul'.  'He used to talk to me. He was very conflicted,' she says. 'It wasn't a decision he took lightly. He knew he was causing hurt and anguish, but he had feelings for somebody. 'Before he died, when it was clear he didn't have much longer, he was commentating on an England game at Wembley.  The England team hadn't been doing so well. When we were going up in the lift, somebody said, 'Bobby, I think we could do with you out there on the pitch tonight'. 'He smiled and said, 'Well, I think I might need a late fitness test'. I remember thinking, 'God, you are amazing'.' Roberta, who was with her father when he died, is close to tears. You know she'd fight tooth and nail to do right by him. I first met her three years ago when the family learned from the FA that the shirt had been found. She was furious when a second co-author of Three Lions On A Shirt, Daren Burney, insisted in a newspaper article that the owner of the shirt was in 'no doubt of the legality of the ownership' and intimated it had been given away accidentally [by Bobby himself] or sold. 'I think to suggest he didn't know for sure which of his shirts was from the final and to accidentally give away the most precious one is so disrespectful to him,' she says. 'The really sad thing is he's not here to defend himself.' Tina, who has recently returned to Britain from her home in Miami owing to ill-health, agrees. 'There is no way he'd have given anything to do with the World Cup final away. He never gave away his medal. He never gave away his football boots and he never gave away his shirt.' Tina would know. After all, even when their 24-year marriage broke down, Bobby left her every piece of his football memorabilia. 'I still loved him but I couldn't cope with it because I really wanted him back. I said we had to discuss who was going to have what,' she says. 'He said, 'There's no need. I just want you to have everything. You've been there for me. I want you to have the lot'. 'He left me his car – everything. I think it was his way of reckoning with his guilt.' As well as Roberta, Bobby and Tina had a son, Dean, who was born two years after the 1966 World Cup. He died in 2011 at the age of 43 from diabetic ketoacidosis – a serious condition that affects people with diabetes when their body starts to run out of insulin.  Bobby had always promised Dean Pele's yellow No 10 shirt which he famously swapped for his own white shirt in the 1970 World Cup after the two men had endured an epic battle as England lost 1-0 in the group stages. 'Dean loved that yellow shirt,' says Tina. 'Bobby used to say to him, 'It's your shirt' and he would wear it and sleep in it. Bobby would never have given that away. They belong to Bobby's children and grandchildren and should be displayed for the nation.' 'I feel terrible. I feel I've let Bobby down. It's my duty now to do as much as I possibly can to right what has happened and bring that shirt home. For the nation and for my family.' No comments have so far been submitted. 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