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Irish Wedding News

13/02/2014

Sir Ian Botham Discusses Affair

Sir Ian Botham has spoken out about an affair he had in the late 1990s and admitted that it "nearly cost [him] everything".

The former cricketer made the revelations in an interview for Piers Morgan's Life Stories which is due to air on ITV tomorrow (14 February) night.

The 58-year-old added that he had neglected his family and was "selfish" as he carried out his two-year affair with Australian waitress Kylie Verrells.

Botham met Verrells in 1998 when she waited on his table at a restaurant in Sydney during an Ashes tour. The couple embarked on a two-year relationship but separated when she went to the press and accused the cricketer of going back on a promise to leave his wife.

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In the fallout of the affair, the father-of-three told Morgan that it had "brought me back down to earth" and made him realise he had been "living a lie for two years".

He continued: I was very selfish in that period of time. To this day, I still don't know why that period of time happened. At times you make big mistakes and that was a massive mistake."

Despite everything, Botham and his wife, Kath, worked through the problems and have now been married for 37 years. However, she did admit to struggling to deal with the media reports.

She said: "Ian would get on the phone and say, 'Hi, there's going to be something in the papers over the next few days,' and my heart would just sink."

Equally, his three children – Liam, Sara and Becky – were "livid" when the affair came to light. Liam, who was also present for the interview, admitted: "I don't think he was a very good husband and I don't think he was a particularly great father."

On working hard to keep his marriage and family together, Botham added: "It [the affair] nearly cost me everything that's so important to me. I had to rebuild the hole family.

"It wasn't so much saying, it was doing, and being there, being available, going out of my way to be available. In fact, doing everything a normal father probably does."

(JP)

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"Sir Ian Botham has spoken out about an affair he had in the late 1990s and admitted that it "nearly cost [him] everything"."