Serene: Stacey with husband Ryan Giggs at the awards last Thursday
The confession, made nearly two weeks ago at their enormous mock-Tudor mansion outside Manchester, must have been painful to make and worse still to hear.
But proudly standing by Ryan Giggs at the Manchester United Player of the Year awards last Thursday, his wife Stacey Cooke appeared serenely untroubled.
Her hair was just so, and her lipstick a perfectly executed slash of vampish red.
You would hardly have known that a bombshell had just been detonated under her pretty nose – that her husband was being accused of having a six-month fling with former Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas.
Ex marks the spot: Ryan Giggs had an intense romance with TV presenter Dani Behr (left) and dated former PR girl Caroline Stanbury She was well aware, of course, that all eyes would be on her – and that everyone in the room would know her husband was the Premier League footballer who had taken out an injunction.
It remains to be seen whether she will leave him, taking with her a slice of Giggs’s £25million fortune and their two adorable children.
He swears that the story is not true in many respects.
And the fact is that she is still with him. His Bentley remains unmolested in the garage, and she has not taken the scissors to his collection of Dolce and Gabbana suits.
Ex marks the spot: Ryan Giggs had an intense romance with TV presenter Dani Behr (left) and dated former PR girl Caroline Stanbury Why? Well, while the rest of us may think of Ryan Giggs in terms of his public image – as a successful footballer who has been impeccably loyal to Manchester United and so on – it seems that his wife might have long suspected that there is another, darker side to him. Indeed the Imogen Thomas brouhaha is by no means the first time that she has had cause to believe her husband has not been faithful.
Celebration: Ryan Giggs with son Zach at Old Trafford after he collected his 12 Premier League winners medal for Manchester United
Ryan Giggs has earned a reputation as a womaniser, so his fling with Imogen Thomas, pictured yesterday, left, will come as no surprise to some. Wife Stacey Cooke, right, even once kicked him out over an alleged fling‘He’s still very much the social leader, always the life and soul of the party. He just makes sure he does it behind closed doors now.’
Giggs’s agent Harry Swales remains amazed by talk of infidelity, saying: ‘I can’t believe it, he’s such a family man.’
Medal of honour: Ryan Giggs was given an OBE - Officer of the Order of the British Empire - in 2007The footballer has certainly tried very hard to keep it secret – and he could argue that this has been done to spare his family pain. His children are still young – Liberty is eight and Zach just four.
While there might be a melancholy atmosphere behind doors at their mansion in Worsley, which features a glass tower and an indoor pool, complete with a Welsh Dragon design on the tiles, perhaps it’s not the end for Ryan and Stacey.
One associate of the couple said last night: ‘He still promises that the story is false, and she loves him.’
source: dailymail
