English Premier League fans have known NBCSN host Rebecca Lowe has been pregnant since late September. You can see the happy announcement which was broken by Kyle Martino:
NBC Sports is thrilled to announce that BPL host Rebecca Lowe is pregnant! Congratulations to Rebecca & her family! http://t.co/kni96rU0H6
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) September 26, 2015
Fans have known that Lowe will be leaving at some point in the season to go on maternity leave. That time is now. After the Manchester Derby on NBC and hosting the always wonderful Goal Zone, Lowe will prepare to give birth to her first child, a son. Her husband, Paul Buckle, who coaches Sacramento Republic FC in the United Soccer League, will return to their Connecticut home to be with Lowe as much as possible.
For the rest of the season, NBCSN will have Premier League voice Arlo White back in the States for two weeks to host coverage and then hand off to Steve Bower who will host the final five weeks of the current campaign.
Lowe tells the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir that it will be hard to miss the rest of this season which has seen plenty of upheaval in the EPL table:
“The season is 10 months long. Of all the seasons in the Premier League, it’s typical that this is arguably been the best one and I won’t be there for the end.”
Lowe said her mother will be coming over to her Connecticut home to help out with the baby while Buckle is in the midst of his coaching duties in Sacramento.
Lowe has been the host of NBC Sports Group’s English Premier League coverage since 2013 and her steady skills as host have made her popular with viewers who appreciate the Peacock’s approach to the game. And when NBC re-upped with the EPL for an additional six seasons last year, Lowe was promptly signed for the duration of the contract.
“My husband and I had a Plan A, if we kept the rights, and a Plan B if we didn’t,” she said. “We brought our lives to the U.S. and to NBC. We want to make this our life, and it would have been harder if we didn’t get the rights.”
Lowe will return to NBC in time to host the Summer Olympics in August and while she’s in Rio, it means that she will miss the beginning of the 2016-17 EPL season. It will be her second Olympics hosting stint as she was part of NBCSN’s early morning coverage from the 2014 Sochi Games.
“I love soccer, and it will always be my No. 1,” she said. “But I also really enjoy putting that to one side and trying my hand at other things.”
So Lowe will be absent from the NBCSN and the EPL until August. Fans who became accustomed to see her interact with “RobbieEarle” and “RobbieMustoe” will have to do without her until she returns from Rio in late August.
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