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Lewis Hamilton’s Babysitter Once Shrugged Off “Slums” Claims to Expose the Reality of His Childhood

Published 02/05/2023, 9:00 AM EST

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via Reuters

Lewis Hamilton has never shied away from speaking about his tough childhood. Motor racing is an expensive sport; to stay afloat in the competition, one needs a steady cash inflow. That was hard to come by as he comes from a working-class family. To top that, he had to overcome incidents of racial abuse. All his success despite all the struggle makes him a great inspiration for many. However, once a negative comment on Stevenage, the place he grew up in, did not go down well with the residents. Later, his babysitter came out to describe what a happy childhood he had there.

Back in 2018, Hamilton was nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Speaking at the event, he described Stevenage as “slums”. The people and administrators of the place took an exception to the comments and slammed him. Later in an interview, his babysitter Bruce Harris, whose wife Janet was a registered childminder, described what his life was like as a toddler.

via Reuters

Refusing to get drawn into the controversial comments while speaking with MailOnline, Harris said, “He was good as gold to look after and I can never remember him crying. He wasn’t a fussy boy either and he’d eat anything you put in front of him and always seemed happy.”

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Bruce also shared some of Lewis’ photos as a toddler. He continued, “At the time we had a whippet-cross called Ben and they were always playing together in the garden. It was a lovely time we spent with him and I’m glad at the way he’s turned out and we both wish him all the best for the future.”

Trevor Lugmayer, the man who lived in Hamilton’s former home, did not like his comments either and described what the house looked like when Lewis and his family lived there.

The resident of Lewis Hamilton’s former childhood home slammed his comments

Lugmayer, during the interview with MailOnline in 2018, lived in the same house Lewis lived in, with his wife Valerie. The then 73-year-old Trevor and 76-year-old Valerie did not take well to Lewis’ “slums” comment for Stevenage and told how much they loved living there.

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via Reuters

Trevor said, “Stevenage is a lovely place, it’s charming and its full of lovely people. There is no way you could describe Stevenage as a slum. I can’t believe he would say that.”

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He added, “When Hamilton lived here there were six bedrooms and four bathrooms.”

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Watch This Story: Lewis Hamilton risks angering neighbors again

Valerie described how she loved living there with her daughter and five grandchildren living next door. She also told how they still got some mails addressed to Lewis.

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Written by:

Nischay Rathore

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Nischay Rathore is a Formula 1 Author at EssentiallySports. Being a law graduate, he has worked at the Supreme Court of India as well as the High Court of Delhi. However, due to his adherent love for sports, he has now set out to start his journey into the world of Sports Journalism.
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Edited by:

Ranvijay Singh