‘Cheat’ Cipriani left me feeling suicidal, says ex-girlfriend
THE former girlfriend of England rugby ace Danny Cipriani allegedly dumped him because his ‘controlling’ behaviour left her contemplating suicide.
Hope Stubbings, 27, said she felt worthless after Cipriani made her feel she ‘belonged to him’ and persuaded her to turn a blind eye to his relationships with other women.
The mother-of-one reportedly told a friend their relationship was so unhealthy that she had considered ‘ending it all’.
Cipriani, who will be hoping to play for England in the autumn international games, is claimed to have defended his behaviour by saying being hit in the head for a living has left him with a very short memory.
The 30-year- old was convicted of common assault on a doorman and resisting arrest during a fracas on a pre-season tour in Jersey earlier this month. The Gloucesa ter fly-half escaped with a fine despite injuring a female police officer after a drunken nightclub row.
Miss Stubbings, who is studying for a neuroscience master’s degree, met Cipriani via Instagram last November.
She is said to have told a friend: ‘ He’s the most controlling person I have ever met. If you’re like Danny and able to be with almost any woman you want, that becomes really boring so he finds other ways to get a kick. Just being with somebody for night is not enough for him. He doesn’t get the same sort of thrill.’
Miss Stubbings, a mental health manager, began to question her sanity because Cipriani made her so reliant on him, according to The Sun. In a message, she reportedly said: ‘My relationship with Danny is the most unhealthy I have ever had.
‘My positive personality has gone and I’ve become an emotional wreck, constantly in tears and wondering if it is worth carrying on. In my darkest hours, of which there have been many, I have thought about ending it all.’
Cipriani is said to have invited Miss Stubbings to his house in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, after sending her naked pictures of himself.
‘He established from the beginning that I belonged to him,’ she is said to have told a friend. ‘I had to be available whenever he wanted to see me. He sent me a message saying, “I want to make you pregnant”. It was all about ownership.’ But three months into their intense relationship, Cipriani allegedly sent her a text saying: ‘I’ve met someone, babe.’
Miss Stubbings told her friend: ‘He said seeing another woman didn’t mean we had to stop. I just had to be OK with him being with other lovers.’
Cipriani allegedly told her to message him less when he was with other women and ordered her stay in his bedroom when friends visited. She told the friend: ‘He literally hid me away. I was not allowed to meet his friends.
‘He’s so good at making people fall in love with him. If he didn’t want me to be this dependent on him, he’d walk away. Danny won’t accept anything is his fault. He doesn’t know how ... to stop his impulses. He’s always blaming someone.’
Cipriani’s agent did not respond to a request for a comment.
‘He literally hid me away’