WHAT’S THAT GIRL DOING ON MY SOFA?
Farage wife’s fury after finding him late one night with ANOTHER foxy aide by his side
NIGEL FARAGE’s wife erupted with fury after finding him on the family sofa with a female press officer late one night, it has been claimed.
Shortly after the 2015 incident, the woman involved, Alexandra Phillips, left her £80,000-a-year post as Mr Farage’s spokeswoman and moved to Wales. But she denies there was ever any physical relationship.
The claim comes after The Mail on Sunday revealed last week how the former Ukip leader has been living with another woman, Laure Ferrari, in a £4million bachelor pad in Chelsea, West London.
Mr Farage, 52, dismissed any suggestion of an affair with Ms Ferrari, 37, as ‘ludicrous’ and ‘crackers’.
But this newspaper has been told by a senior party source that Mr Farage has been visiting Ms Ferrari at a house in South London for more than two years – and has been close to her for at least eight. After our report, Mr Farage’s wife Kirsten, 50, announced that the couple had been living separately ‘for some years’.
Today one of Ms Phillips’ friends claimed Kirsten had misunderstood her husband’s behaviour, explaining: ‘The incident at Nigel’s house in Kent was very weird. Alex was there with Kirsten. Nigel was out, and came back in late.
‘While Alex waited for a lift home, Kirsten went up to bed, and Alex and Nigel sat down to watch TV. Alex thought everything was OK.’
But Kirsten came down later and was furious to find them still on the sofa together. The source added: ‘The next day Nigel told Alex that Kirsten got the wrong end of the stick about something going on.’
Tensions between the women were not helped by another incident during the 2015 Election campaign at the Double Tree hotel in Lincoln.
Mr Farage allegedly upset hotel staff by angrily demanding more alcohol when the bar had closed, and insisting on smoking inside, after he and Ms Phillips had been drinking with other Ukip aides.
One witness said: ‘Nigel was monkeying around with Alexandra. Everyone had been drinking. Nigel started shouting and swearing when the staff said the bar was closed. Kirsten sorted it all out as she always did when Nigel was out of order.’
Mrs Farage was not present at the April 7 incident, but is said to have HOME TRUTHS: Our revelations last week and, right, Mr Farage with Ms Phillips on the Ukip campaign trail ‘told Nigel off’ by phone and then smoothed things over with the hotel.
Ms Phillips, 33, said the move to Wales was unconnected to any intervention by Mrs Farage. She said: ‘I became aware at the time of these baseless rumours being spread about me by individuals in the party involved in a power struggle.
‘It had been decided long before this that I would move to Wales for the Assembly election. I am incredibly fond of Kirsten and very sorry to learn of their marital situation’. Ms Phillips put herself forward as a Ukip candidate for the Welsh Assembly, but withdrew before polling day in May last year. She has since left Ukip to join the Conservatives and has taken a new job in Africa.
Until now, most of the controversy about Mr Farage’s private life has centred on Annabelle Fuller, another former Ukip press officer. A rival politician once called her Farage’s ‘former mistress’ in the European Parliament, but both have denied any affair. Ms Fuller is now known as Trixy Sanderson and is an aide to Ukip MEP Mike Hookem.
Now the focus has turned to Ms Ferrari, who runs the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe.
The body is at the centre of an Electoral Commission probe over £400,000 in donations which it, and an affiliated political alliance, funnelled to Ukip.
Mr Farage says he allowed Ms Ferrari to stay in his bachelor pad as a favour after her organisation’s funding was stopped.
But this is not the first time he has helped with her accommodation, a Ukip source claims, saying that in 2015 Mr Farage helped arrange for Miss Ferrari to live in a house in Clapham on his route between London and his home in Kent.
Last night, a spokesman for Mr Farage said: ‘The allegations you make are all based on hearsay.’
‘Kirsten got the wrong end of the stick’