You liar! Wife’s blast as ex-Sky pundit renews affair with lover
WHEN sports presenter Richard Keys was caught having an affair with one of his daughter’s friends, he went on the offensive.
In an attempt to protect his reputation, the 59-year-old pressured his wife of 34 years into saying that his liaison with a 27-year-old lawyer never took place.
But the Mail can reveal that instead of using the episode as an opportunity to end the affair, Keys continued to arrange secret trysts with lover Lucie Rose – prompting his wife to brand him ‘a pathological liar’.
This week he spent two nights with her at a five-star hotel in the West End of London where standard rooms cost £400 a night and cocktails are £16 each.
Keys, who landed a £420,000-a-year tax-free TV job in Qatar after leaving his post at Sky Sports in disgrace for making sexist remarks, flew into London on Tuesday morning.
Miss Rose, now 28, joined him in his room that evening after leaving work at her
‘He promised he would not see her again’
law firm. The pair then strolled arm-in-arm through the lobby of the Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill before going for a short walk. They returned minutes later and found a cosy spot next to a window in The Montagu, the hotel’s upmarket restaurant, where a meal for two with wine costs around £200.
At one point Keys posed for a selfie with a sports fan before they retired for the night.
The next morning Miss Rose, who met Keys on the expat circuit in the Qatari capital Doha, left the hotel for work before returning that evening.
The pair decided to venture away from the hotel for dinner on their second evening together – although Keys took the precaution of partially covering his face with a green hoodie as he left.
His wife Julia, who lives in Berkshire, said her husband had not told her he was staying in a London hotel. Shown pictures of the pair together, she said: ‘I am utterly stunned. Last year he bullied me into making a public statement saying the affair did not take place.
‘I did it for the sake of our family even though I knew he had been carrying on with her. After that he apologised and bought me roses and a teddy in an attempt to patch our marriage up.
‘He promised me that he would not see Lucie again. And this week he sent me texts saying he was categorically not with her and had no feelings for her any more. The irony is that when they were together in that hotel this week, I received a “love heart” in a text and a message which said, “I love you,” from Richard. He wrote, “Please let me come home, I love you, I can’t live without you.” He is a pathological liar.’
Mrs Keys, 57, who suffers from a rare thyroid cancer, filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery last summer at a British court.
In an attempt to patch up their marriage, she went to Doha in the autumn to see Keys. But when she then discovered that he was still seeing Miss Rose, she arranged for her lawyers to send divorce papers to both of them again.
Mrs Keys, a mother of two, added: ‘When someone, after 34 years of marriage, can do this to his wife and still plead for her to take him back, it really does beggar belief as to who this man is because I don’t know him. I really don’t know who he is.’
Mrs Keys, a psychotherapist, said her husband had ‘completely run out of chances’ and she would press ahead with the divorce. Their daughter Jemma, 31, who starred in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks from 2004 to 2007, and their son Josh, 27, are understood to know about the continuing affair. Jemma is believed to have become friends with Miss Rose in Qatar before the affair developed.
Miss Rose worked in the legal department of the Qatar Investment Authority for almost two years before returning to Britain She now works as a private equity lawyer in London.
When approached by the Mail, Keys said: ‘It won’t surprise you to hear I have nothing to say.’ Miss Rose also declined to comment.
Keys presented Sky Sports’ coverage of Premier League football for 19 years, before resigning from his £500,000-a-year job in disgrace in 2011. He and co-presenter Andy Gray had made disparaging off-air remarks about female match official Sian Massey, claiming she did not know the offside law. In another studio conversation, which was not transmitted, Keys asked pundit Jamie Redknapp about a former girlfriend, saying: ‘Did you smash it?’ – offensive slang for ‘Did you have sex with her?’
Keys then presented a football show on TalkSport radio, before being lured to Qatar, where is the face of the BeIN sports channels.