Sturgeon laughs of f rumours of an ‘exotic double life’
FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon has denied she is living an ‘exotic double life’.
In an interview, she claimed there is no truth in what the interviewer described as a ‘caravan of rumours’ about her ‘private life’, and laughed them off.
She said: ‘This sort of exotic double life that I’m supposedly leading is a damn sight more interesting than the actual life I’m leading. It does not have a scintilla of truth or basis in reality. It is just so completely off the wall.’
In her interview with the Sunday Times, the SNP leader also revealed she had been the victim of inappropriate touching and leering as a young politician.
On one occasion in her early twenties, Miss Sturgeon revealed a senior journalist had stared at her chest throughout a lunch.
She said: ‘I remember having lunch in my early twenties with a guy who was the political editor of a big Scottish newspaper at the time, and the whole conversation was kind of conducted at this level [Miss Sturgeon gestures at her bust] and just felt really uncomfortable.’
She said she did not tell the man or anyone else at the time, adding: ‘I guess he probably didn’t think he was doing anything particularly untoward.
‘I don’t even know who I would have said anything to. It was just the kind of thing you put up with.’
Miss Sturgeon has received growing and widespread criticism recently, with people in her own party unhappy at the current state of the SNP.
Concerns have been raised over her stance on holding a second independence referendum, as well as domestic policies and her leadership. Specific fears have been raised about the SNP’s chief executive Peter Murrell, Miss Sturgeon’s husband, who has come under pressure to resign.
But as well as criticism from within the party, Miss Sturgeon has been subjected to daily abuse online – and has admitted this does ‘upset’ her sometimes.
She admitted that online abuse does get to her despite learning to develop a thick skin.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I’m not saying I never get wounded or upset or hurt by something I read on social media. I usually just phone up Liz [Lloyd, her chief of staff] and rant about it.’
‘It’s so completely off the wall’