The Scotland rugby star, his model wife and a VERY public and bitter break-up
Allegations of affairs. Fist fights in the street. Car-tracking spy devices and a court case over a missing £250,000. And now a criminal record for common assault...
WHEN Scotland rugby international Simon Danielli wed his Irish model bride Olivia Jennings, it seemed the perfect match for the pair of them. The glamorous daughter of a Belfast property tycoon and the dashing sporting hero with an Oxbridge degree soon became the darlings of the society circuit.
Materially, the pair wanted for nothing. Both were from well-to-do backgrounds with money to burn.
Yet only eight short years after this dazzling couple tied the knot, their marriage has unravelled in the most public of fashions after Danielli was convicted of punching a handyman he suspected of being his wife’s lover.
This week, the grubby details behind the break-up were played out in a Northern Ireland courthouse. Newtonards Magistrates Court can rarely have heard the like, as allegations poured forth of affairs, fist fights in the street, clandestine spying and the theft of £250,000.
In the end – despite character witness evidence from Ulster and Ireland captain Rory Best that his one-time team mate was a man of ‘honesty and integrity’ – Danielli’s reputation lay in tatters, reduced to a criminal record for common assault and a £500 fine.
In truth, neither side in this unseemly spat is likely to profit from what District Judge Mark Hamill condemned as ‘washing their dirty linen in public’. In a scathing judgment, he summed up the bitter nature of the marital conflict: ‘Sadly, these two are at daggers drawn.’
For 37-year-old Danielli, the privately educated Oxford blue who played 32 times for Scotland – including in two World Cups – during a career ultimately cut short by injury, the impact, both private and professional, could be considerable.
Following his retirement, he carved out a new career as a financial adviser and radio pundit and supported various charities. How much of that is in jeopardy remains to be seen.
For his wife, who has reverted to her maiden name, the case can only bring shame to her father, Shamus Jennings, who has a £70million fortune.
Members of her family looked on from the public gallery as the story unfolded of Danielli’s suspicions about his 29-year-old wife’s alleged relationship with property maintenance worker Michael Browne.
MR Browne told the court he had known the mother of three for nine months, as their children attended the same nursery. She had gone to his home for a cup of tea on March 11, 2015, before going to a pole-dancing class. As he walked her to her car, she said: ‘There’s Simon, run.’
Mr Browne claimed he tried to flee, but the 6ft 2in, 17 stone former international winger jumped on him, punching and kicking him in an ordeal that lasted about 20 minutes.
In evidence, Miss Jennings claimed she twice tried to pull her husband away but he threw her to the ground, at one point grabbing her iPhone and smashing it.
Later, when she returned to the couple’s luxury home in Holywood, Co Down, she said she found her husband ‘pulling wires out of the hall’ which she believed were recording devices.
Under cross-examination, Miss Jennings admitted she had placed a GPS tracking device in her husband’s car.
Danielli claimed Mr Browne had been injured when he tripped and fell, but admitted standing over him, screaming: ‘Are you proud of yourself?’
When prosecutors suggested he must have been livid at the thought the pair had just had sex, Danielli replied he was ‘just disappointed’. He added: ‘It’s not like it was the first time. It wasn’t a total shock. I just had to see it for myself.’
Danielli’s counsel, Mark Mulholland, QC, put it to Miss Jennings that before the suspected relationship with Mr Browne she had a ‘longstanding affair’ with another man.
He also put it to her that, before relations completely soured, her father had texted his son-in-law in October 2014, saying: ‘Please don’t give up, Simon. I will deal with any third-party issues.’
Miss Jennings denied suggestions her allegations of assault were ‘all a fabrication against this man who your father said he would destroy’.
The court heard that, as well as the assault case, she and her family had teams of lawyers working on court proceedings, an industrial tribunal and a non-molestation order.
Further revelations emerged that Danielli had earlier had his assets frozen and was interviewed by police over claims he stole up to £250,000 from his wife’s bank account. No charges were ever brought and the High Court later returned his assets.
On one point, Judge Hamill sided with Danielli, dismissing the charges of assault against his wife. ‘The idea that the unsupported word of a squabbling spouse against that of the other could provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt is unlikely enough at the best of times. When you combine it with the background of ongoing legal backdrops in almost every single court available, it makes it all the more unlikely that the prosecution are going to achieve proof beyond reasonable doubt.’
Born in Edinburgh in 1979, Simon Charles Jonathan Danielli was only months old when he moved south with his English parents. His subsequent upbringing could scarcely have been more quintessentially English. He attended £34,000-a-year Cheltenham College before studying philosophy and theology at Oxford.
His parents still live in the Cotswolds. Retired accountant father Robin, 74, is national treasurer of the Pony Club. Ironically, he is also a former director of relationship counselling service Relate Gloucester and
Swindon. His wife Andrea, 69, volunteers for a charity providing riding facilities for children and young people with learning disabilities.
Rugby was young Simon’s passion. But for a while, it seemed as though he was destined to wear the English rose on his jersey. He played in the same England schoolboys team as Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall and Iain Balshaw. He even represented England at under-21 level before Scotland came calling.
Danielli had no obvious Scottish ancestry beyond his birthplace, except his maternal grandmother. The daughter of a military man, she was born in Edinburgh Castle.
Even before completing his degree, Danielli was signed by Richmond on a three-year deal worth £150,000, before moving to Bristol and then Bath.
His speed and finishing power earned him a try-scoring debut for Scotland against Italy in a World Cup warm-up match in 2003. At the time, he said: ‘I realise people might question my background but I have no internal questions about my allegiance. I have spent my life in England, but when England play I am rooting for the opposition – so that probably shows my true colours.’
He became engaged to Welsh model Danielle Bux. But in 2007, Miss Bux, who already had a daughter by footballer Adam Willis, broke it off. She would go on to marry Match of the Day host Gary Lineker, although the couple later divorced.
In the same year, Danielli moved across the Irish Sea to Ulster. Initially, it provided an upturn both in his rugby fortunes, where his try-scoring made him a fans’ favourite, and his love life after he met Olivia.
She is the granddaughter of horse breeder Gerald Jennings, and her father Shamus, 64, and his brother Francis, 66, are regularly rated among the wealthiest businessmen in Northern Ireland. In 2008, they sold their building services firm, Rotary, to an Australian engineering company in a deal worth £95million. Despite mixed fortunes since the financial crash, the brothers still control a sizeable portfolio, including a fishing and shooting estate on Islay and property on London’s Bond Street. Within a year of meeting Miss Jennings in 2008, Danielli had proposed during a romantic trip to New York. Announcing their intention to marry, he said: ‘Olivia’s the one for me. I couldn’t be happier.’ In a 2011 interview, Danielli said: ‘I would call Belfast home now. It’s a very easy place to live, with the friendliness of the locals. I’m delighted it’s worked out.’ The following year, a persistent back injury forced him to hang up his boots but he switched tack to become an investment adviser with London-based Agathos Management. He also became a pundit for BBC Radio Ulster and is still chairman of a local sports charity.
THE Daniellis became a fixture in society circles, taking part in charity events – including a dance-off in 2012, before which Olivia joked about having two left feet. She said: ‘The last time Simon and I did anything like this was the first dance at our wedding nearly three years ago – and that didn’t go so well.’
By late 2014, the marriage was not going so well either. In September that year, Danielli left the marital home and moved into an apartment owned by his father-in-law in Belfast, while the couple tried to save their marriage with counselling.
The court heard that his wife made a list of ten ‘reconciliation points’. Danielli had only one: ‘That if she had the compulsion to be with any more men, just tell me and the marriage would end.’
He told the court his fears about his wife having an affair with Mr Browne came to a head when he saw her mobile ring, with a profile bearing Mr Browne’s photo but under a woman’s name, adding: ‘I think it was Michelle.’ He said text messages between the two were ‘explicit’.
Mr Browne, who sat in the gallery with the Jennings family, spent most of Danielli’s testimony with his head bowed, staring at the floor.
If there was little chance of saving the marriage before the trial, the guilty verdict has booted any prospect of reconciliation into touch. Danielli now lives in an upmarket cul-de-sac about a mile from the marital home. His estranged wife – who describes herself on Twitter as ‘Domestic Goddess, MILF, animal lover. Loves to party!’ – is registered as living in the town. Companies House records show Danielli resigned a number of directorships with companies linked to the Jennings family in 2015.
It is, however, unlikely to be the last time the couple go to court. Apart from any divorce proceedings, Miss Jennings is due to go on trial accused of damaging Danielli’s £38,000 Jaguar in 2015. There may be many hard yards still to defend before the final whistle.