so you share it between the two of you? yeah, yeah, yeah. if it was just you, would you take a smaller box? no, i'd still take a big box. laughs. i probably would, maybe like a lunchtime, then on tea—time i might sort of get one box and share. i would consider if the calories were less. so an option for the more calorie conscious and more good news, mushy peas count as one of your five a day. finally, visitors got more than they bargained for at belfast zoo earlier today... several chimpanzees made an improvised ladder from a large tree branch propped up against a wall, to escape. proves they really are the closest to us in the line of evolution. the council, which runs the zoo, said the apes were now back in their enclosure. but this is the second escape attempt by animals at the zoo in as many months. injanuary, a red panda went missing overnight before being discovered in a nearby garden.

now it's time for a look at the weather with alina jenkins. rain still be clearing away. could see sleet and snow over the hills of scotland, parts of wales, south—west england, patchy rain for a time gci’oss england, patchy rain for a time across southern england. night wears on, sky is clearer. risk advice for scotla nd on, sky is clearer. risk advice for scotland and northern ireland. temperatures getting close to freezing, if not minus three or minus four. cold start to the new week but most, dry, good deal of sunshine through the day. afternoon, more cloud building. western isles. patchy drizzle towards the evening. essentially for mostly dry day. spells of french sign —— might some gen, lighter winds. milder theme stays with us in the week ahead,

high pressure, mainly dry for most, sunshine, often breezy, particularly in the north and west. hello this is bbc news. the headlines: work and pensions secretary amber rudd warns company bosses they could be jailed for up to seven years if they "wilfully or recklessly" mismanage their employees' pension scheme. theresa may will ask mps for more time to rework her brexit plan — but labour accuses the prime minister of trying to run down the clock. kurdish—led forces — backed by the united states have launched a final push to defeat the so—called islamic state group in syria. the scientist who discovered the link between eating too much processed meat and bowel cancer accuses the government of not doing enough to encourage people to cut their consumption. the duke of edinburgh gives up his driving licence, weeks after he crashed his car near the queen's sandringham estate. and monkeying around at belfast zoo, visitors were surprised to find a chimpanzee wandering outside its enclosure after it managed to make a ladder out of branches to escape its pen.

now on bbc news 7 a special programme with one of the world s greatest sports stars. in this frank interview, billiejean king talks to the bbc‘s sue barker about her sexuality, life as an advocate for gender equality, lgbt rights and socialjustice. applause. as a youngster, i dreamt of playing professional tennis but that, at the time, didn't look possible. then, all of a sudden, it changed, and it changed because of one person. on court, this unique talent won 39 grand slam titles, but it's what she did off the court that will define her legacy. the women's tour, which i played in, was set up by her in the 1970s and suddenly, prize money, legislation and conditions improved for women like me. we had a voice.

we were heard. it was a game changer. and today, all sportswomen are in a far better place. there's equality, respect, the playing field is levelling out. this woman led the way to make it all happen. a champion player, a fearless pioneer, the ultimate winner in a battle of the sexes, who i am proud to call a friend. she is billiejean king. applause. i first played tennis at 11. the second time i picked up a racquet, i knew i wanted to be the number one player in the world. you know, it's wonderful to be celebrated and appreciated for — for everything that she's done. each of us is an influencer. every single one of us. she deserves every accolade that she receives because she is so interested in the welfare

of others and i think she really takes that seriously, that she has a voice, that she has a platform and that she is an advocate for causes that she believes in. let's continue to use our power of our voices, our action to inspire others. thank you so much for tonight. thank you for having me. god bless you. applause. ladies and gentlemen, the inspirational, iconic and indefatigable billiejean king. cheering and applause. billiejean, listening to your speech as sports personality, it seemed very humble because, you know, with everything you've achieved in your life, i mean, you're a game changer. well, i think i really wanted to thank people and then go through the progression of how i made it from the time i was young and wanted to be number one and won wimbledon. and when you think back at this age, you start —

i'm always thinking about all the different people who helped me because you never get there alone, ever. i don't know — and i listen to certain athletes or players and i think "wow! they talk just about themselves." i want to know about how did you get here? and i think it is important that people have a little bit of history. she fell in love with the game and that is truly is what started her. she came home and said she wanted to be a tennis player. and how old was she then? 11. 11 years old. she started late. she wanted to be number one in the world. notjust long beach — in the world. i actually, i don't know much about billie jean as a player. she finished playing four years before i was born — i hope she doesn't mind me saying that! we forget what a great tennis player she was.

she's aggressive, she goes after what she wants, you know, she had a beautiful backhand, she was a serve and volleyer. only five foot four but speedy as can be. she was a great athlete and she could move, she could hit the shots, she was able to analyse, she was able to really commit herself and focus and analyse a match. an attitude in a good way — that confidence, that belief, that, you know, that kind of swagger that "i can get thisjob done" and that carried over into life. she was a natural leader. people believed in her. she was obviously a fantastic player — i mean, one of the best of all time — but it's what she's done away from the court that's been even more impressive. you changed the whole face of women's tennis and, in some ways, women's sport, and everyone looks at tennis now as sort of a blueprint of how — how you can make things happen, and that — that was driven by you. i wanted the men and women to be together and the men rejected us, and that was a really hard time for me. because i still think

if we were together, it would be much more powerful. we could do so much more off the court to make the world a better place together. and we're all together in this world, anyway. unfortunately, that's not the way it happened, so plan b was to "0k, we'll do it ourselves, the women." ann jones, rosie casals, francois durr and i were the first four real contract players in the modern times, because they never included women, ever, as pi’os. and george mccall signed us. and that was when? that was back in ‘68, just when open tennis were starting to happen. we wanted to be pros, we wanted to get paid, we wanted everything out in the open because you know, before that, you were getting money under the table. money came into tennis for the first time in 1968, when the associations agreed to have what they called open tennis — where they could be prize money, amateurs could play against pros. billie was thrilled.

finally, players were going to be able to learn a living playing tennis, and i remember hertelling a story of how excited she was about open tennis and then, she got to wimbledon and she won wimbledon in 1968 and got £750, while rod laver won the men's singles and got £2000. and i think she really felt that finally, tennis was open, but the fight really was only beginning because the women were having, you know, less and less opportunities. and i think that was when the penny dropped that "we're going to have to do something on our own. we're gonna have to separate from the men and start the women's tennis association." the three things we thought about in the wta when we formed that three years later was the same mantra, and that was any girl, if she's good enough in this world would have a place to compete, that the woman tennis player

would the appreciated for accomplishments and not just her looks, and number three — which, for our generation, who only made $14 a day usually, and expense money — was to make a living. it must have been very difficult in the early days of the wta, and kind of taking that chance. our goal was for global — for the rest of the world. we had to get started. huge risk though, wasn't it? oh, huge, we were going to lose out on everything. we never knew if we would be able to play wimbledon again or the us open, or any tournament. we might be blackballed. we might never get to play again. but we felt, um, it was so important to do this for not only our generation but for the junior — you know, the future generations. we had to do this not only for ourselves, but for the future generations. she's obviously someone who stood up for what she believed in and i imagine at the time, she would have taken a lot of stick, um, you know, and gone through a lot. um, but ultimately, she's changed, you know,

our sport for the better by doing that. i hope that the generations that have come after us really understand the risk that they took. the path has been paved by those original nine. it's pretty easy now to make a good living, and it wasn't that way always. modern women's pro tennis would not have occurred had one of those incredibly important people, billie jean king, been there and done what she did. this driving force that you have seems to have been in your dna. because of my dna! because even at the age of 12, you were thinking things that most i2—year—olds would never think. you were sitting at a tennis club and thought what? i was at the los angeles tennis club and i thought everybody who plays wears white shoes, white socks, white clothes, plays with white tennis balls, and guess what? everybody who plays is white.

and my question at 12 was where's everybody else? and so, that was a moment of my total commitment to fight for equality and inclusion for everyone — for everyone. billie always had the bigger picture in mind. um, i think tennis did give her the platform but ironically, the match that changed everything for billie jean was the battle of the sexes in 1973 against bobby riggs. file: it has been called the battle of the sexes, the greatest match of the year, and the greatest waste of money and time. but whatever the title, it's a tournament which has caught the imagination of millions of americans, and even the harshest of critics can see the sort of publicity it's receiving could do for tennis what muhammed ali did for boxing. that match...

that match! the battle of the sexes... yes! i mean, were you aware just how important that match was? yeah. that was probably the most important match for tennis, actually. everybody had a stake in it. it was the husbands and it was the wives and it was the daughters, it was the sons and it was all about equality, and billie had a lot of pressure. i can't even imagine the pressure that she would've felt that day. everybody was, like, glued to the television. claims of being a woman is not a drawback when it comes to emotional stress and strain, and we're gonna see what happens when we take to the court. the men wanted bobby to win. he was older — he was, what, 55 years old, something like that, and billie was young and she was at the peak of her powers. they said a lot of male chauvinists are not really proud of bobby riggs representing them, but i'm sure i've only heard from the ones that aren't proud of him. the ones who are proud of him i'm sure would go talk to him instead of talking to me. i remember her running his ass off.

i mean, you know, having these long rallies, lob over his head, he'd go — i mean, he — he was tired. the women got so much more self—confidence after that moment and the men are the ones that usually are more reflective and have tears in their eyes and, you know, "i watched that match when i was 12 or 15 or 20 and now, i have daughters. boy! that match really influenced me as far as how i want my daughters and sons and all genders to have equal opportunity and equal rights." so much, i think, at stake for women because they'd been fighting so long for acceptance and equality and being able to compete, um, you know, especially in sports. that really changed billie jean's life.

it really, i think, gave her an opportunity to do more thanjust have this be about tennis. this now became about everybody in life. the next day, i think more women felt like they could go out and go out and go after what they wanted. i tell you, i was sitting at home watching the bobby riggs match, battle of the sexes. oh, you were? yeah, i was watching. how old were you? i, well... you weren't very old. no, i was — i wasjust done my teens and i was like, it was my future. if you hadn't have won that, if you hadn't have changed women's tennis the way it is, i wouldn't have been able to play tennis as a career. and i had the most magical 15 years playing tennis. and then tennis has given me my other career. this is a great one, too. both of them are great. so let me just say, billie, a huge thank you to you for changing my life — and not only my life, but so many tennis players with what you had — that vision, that belief, and the guts to go out and stand up and take on organisations

the way you did. you changed so many people's lives, so thank you, so much. wow. thank you so much. that's very touching. she has been a huge advocate for women's rights, and equal rights, that's obviously translated into one of those things in tennis which is not really the case i think in any other sport, we have pretty equal prizemoney across the men's and women's tours, and that is extremely significant. and i think she was advocating for that probably 30, 40 years ahead of her time. everyone thinks, oh, billiejean king did so much for women's sport and for women... it's not about women. but it isn't, isn't it. it irritates me. here's what happens. when a woman leads, they say, thanks for trying to help women.

they never say that to a guy, they never say, oh, thanks for helping those men! when it is a male leader they obviously think it is for everyone. but when it is a woman leader they think, oh, it's for women, she is trying to help women. no. first of all i grew up with a brother who played 12 years of professional baseball, which here doesn't mean that much but it is huge at home. i say oh, my younger brother played professional baseball, and they say, what! i say his name, randall moffitt, and they say, moffitt! oh, it's not king? i say no, that is my former husband's name. they say oh, that's why i didn't put you guys together. you met larry, your husband, at college. yes, we met together there. he was a biochemist major. i love smart guys. how long were you married?

we were married about 22 years... but i've been with ilana for 39 years. as a ball kid when i was 11 years old i was actually, during the south african open i was hitting some tennis balls with my dad on one of the side courts at ellis park, and billie jean walked by the court, she stopped, she came out onto the court, she hit with me for about 10—15 minutes, i remember her saying to my parents and to me, "you have a lot of talent, and if you work hard, maybe you can become a tennis player. " and that changed my life for all time. i read a quote of yours, tell me if this is true, but you didn't actually feel comfortable in your own skin until you were about 51 years old. that's absolutely correct! very good. you always do your homework, sue! that is incredibly sad. it is sad, because it stopped me from achieving some of the things i want. but you know, you look at a lot of lives, and no life goes perfectly.

it is the people who can adapt to the ups and downs better and be resilient, and that is what sports teach us. keep bouncing back. so i went to an eating disorder place, and i really got comfortable with my sexuality and the challenges ihad. but there is no way in the 70s it would have worked, to come out and talk about having trouble, i don't know if i am bisexual, if i am gay, i don't know what i am, and i'm going through a hard time, we're just starting the tour — i can't talk about that in the 70s, we would have been finished in one second, we would have had a tour. because the tour was in its infancy in the 70s, the sponsors actually told her, if you talk about your sexuality, there won't be a tour. i think that probably was really hard for billie to not be able to be her own authentic self and have to walk that tightrope. i actually had people come up to me who were close to me and say, you cannot say one word or this...

we will not have a tour. those were people working on the tour. it was very hard because i could not do this in a private way, it was very public. because you were forced to come out, weren't you? yes, i was outed, but i told the truth and my lawyer and my publicist did not want me to tell the truth. that was another challenge i had. and they finally caved in, and i must say my publicist really came through, she had the whole office behind my media conference where i told the truth. larry was there, my parents were there, it was really hard on my parents because they were homophobic, but they wanted me to be happy. it really gets confusing. younger people today look at me like, what was the big deal? it was a big deal. every sponsor dropped her. but i just remember how honest she was, and she got up there and said, "i did have an affair, it was wrong, it had nothing to do with it being a man or a woman, it was wrong, i was married." and i think that

honesty set her free. were your parents, did they see you happy, do they see you... eventually yes, because my parents came to love ilana. and they go, oh, you're so much happier, they got it. i think my mother would always rather me be with a guy, but, i mean, i think guys are great, i understand what she is saying. but ilana, she is the one for me, that's it. everyone has their one, and she is my one. looking back over some special moment in your life. i have too many. president obama for example. presidential medal of freedom, which is given to very few people. what did that mean to you? he spoke about what you achieved and the difference you made for his daughters. president obama was 12 years old when he saw the king—riggs match at the houston astrodome in 1973, and he was 12 years old. and he said that had

a huge influence on him, because now he has two daughters, it helped him in how he raised them, how he thought about them. and i thought wow, he was 12. and then he said, "you don't know this, he said, but i used to watch you at punahou high school." because larry and i lived in hawaii, and obama was going to school there. and he used to sit, i remember the little black kid with a white kid standing there — i said, "was there a white kid standing with you?" and he said yes, there was. wow. so i do remember him. so i thought, wow. ali and i used to talk about this, muhammad ali, we would talk about, you never know how another person is going to touch your life and how you're going to touch theirs. so it's really important to be alert as you go through life. really, really important. the summer is a big summer of sport for a lot of women's sport. if there was a sport there now that is building itself up, beginning to get attention, what advice would you give them?

part of me always thinks it's a good idea to have some of the present and the future, kind of hybrid. so, because you never know really. but it is pretty obvious with social media, digital...you build a brand. whatever you are building, you have to build it. it doesn't matter where are you going, digital, television, doesn't matter — you have to keep building the brand. and today, people remember probably for 18 seconds, so you have to keep new information coming out. where in the old days people could kind of sit with it, not now. if you were to write a letter now to your young self, what advice would you give yourself? i guess i would say, i really am one of the luckiest people in the world. and, you did it — i mean the life i envisioned, i have had that plus. and ijust think, i want tennis to be a pro sport, it is a pro sport.

i want it to be global, it is global. i want equal prizemoney at every tournament, but at least at the majors, because it is about the message, not the money. we have that now. i mean, i am not finished yet, so it is hard for me to write this letter! do you think she is 75? does she know she's 75? because she sure doesn't act like it. she has so much energy and i always tease her because she's said for 20 years now that she has wanted to slow down, and she clearly is not slowing down. she has too many things she wants to accomplish. her favourite quote is "go for it", and that's the way she lives her life, that is the way she plays her tennis, and that is what she wrote to me when i was ten years old on her autograph. "go for it — billie jean king." billie jean is not just an inspiration for me, but i think lots of athletes, i think she has changed our sport for the better. she stood up for what she believed in, and made very significant changes in our sport, so i think more of the fact that she spoke out about something that she believed in very strongly,

is something that i would say i have learned from and will hopefully continue to do in my career. she fought to make the world a better place, and to give the people without a voice a voice, and for people to believe that anything is possible. there is no greater validation than having someone tell you that you made a difference, and billie jean certainly made a difference. the week ahead is looking much quieter, before we get there are still an unsettled feel for some of us still an unsettled feel for some of us to end sunday, we have had some persistent and heavy rain across parts of east anglia and england, this is king's lynn not so long ago. the frontal system is clearing eastwards. we also have this system across the far north of scotland draping its way around the far north of scotland, wintry weather over higher ground with strong and gusty

winds as well and this is slowly sinking southwards over night. we could see sleet and snow over the hills of scotland and wales and south—west england, patchy rain across southern england at all of this eventually will clear skies leading to icy stretches across parts of scotland and ireland with temperatures widely at or below freezing. as low as “11 across parts of rural scotland. we keep an eye on the area of low pressure building for the south—west, this will be the dominant feature of the week ahead. it position will shift slightly so at times the wind will strengthen particularly the further north and west you are but under high pressure most of us will be mainly dry and are mostly there be spells of sunshine around as well. here is how we start monday, may be with one or two showers we start monday, may be with one or two s howe i’s a cross we start monday, may be with one or two showers across the eastern coast, they will soon clear at her much of the day it is dry and fine with a good deal of sunshine and cloud building through the day particularly across the western isles in northern ireland, we see outbreaks of light rain and drizzle here as we head towards the evening but essentially for most it is a dry

day with temperatures up to between seven and ii day with temperatures up to between seven and 11 degrees so slightly milder than today. the milder theme continues as we go from monday into tuesday, an area of high pressure drifting its way further eastwards, lotus —— notice the closer together. a weak front trying to sink south eastwards, never really getting very far but it will introduce more cloud, may be some patchy light rain and drizzle perhaps as far south as the far north of england but for most dry and the best of the sunshine across central southern and eastern england with temperatures widely in double figures between ten and i2 widely in double figures between ten and 12 degrees. by the time we get to wednesday the any of high pressure eve n to wednesday the any of high pressure even further eastwards, enabling this mild south—westerly wind to flood across the uk so temperatures between ten and i2 degrees, most of us will be dry with sunshine perhaps increasing amounts of sunshine as we go through thursday and friday. that's all for now. goodbye. this is bbc news. the headlines at 5pm. work and pensions secretary amber rudd warns company bosses they could be jailed for up to seven

years if they "wilfully or recklessly" mismanage their employees' pension scheme. theresa may will ask mps for more time to rework her brexit plan, and offer parliament another vote, but labour says the prime minister musn‘t keep running down the clock. kurdish—led forces — backed by the united states — have launched a final push to defeat the so—called islamic state group in syria. the duke of edinburgh gives up his driving licence, weeks after he crashed his car near the queen's sandringham estate. and in15 and in 15 minutes and we will be live on the red carpet at the royal albert hall, watching sties arrive for the baftas. and in rugby — england romp to 44 points to 8 victory against france in the six nations match at twickenham.