Ryan Giggs trial: Ex-girlfriend Kate Greville to be cross-examined by former footballer’s lawyers

Ryan Giggs and his ex-girlfriend Kate Greville were ‘utterly addicted’ to messaging and expected each other to reply ‘in seconds’, jury members in the footballer’s domestic assault trial have today been told.  

Under cross-examination by Giggs’s lawyer, Ms Greville, 36, was today asked about her complaining to the former Manchester United star regarding his response time to her messages.

The PR executive had previously claimed the ex-footballer was ‘unsupportive’ of her career and would ‘undermine’ her, including when she was looking to leave her then employer, GG Hospitality, run by Giggs and former team-mate Gary Neville, and set up her own business.

She also claimed Giggs, who she earlier in the trial claimed was having ‘full-on’ affairs with eight other women during their relationship, had ‘conditioned’ her to reply instantly to text messages and had made her feel ‘insecure’.

But Giggs’ lawyer, Chris Daw QC, today challenged her claims. He read out a message sent by Ms Greville to Ms Giggs, in which she said: ‘My own f****** boyfriend can’t reply to a message,’ to which Giggs replied: ‘WTF I was sorting the kids out.’

Asked about the message, Ms Greville replied: ‘He had conditioned me to behaving like that, I was like you expect me to reply within seconds so why don’t you reply within seconds. I used to do it back to him…’

Ryan Giggs trial – A summary: What the jury have heard so far

  • Ryan Giggs and his ex-girlfriend Kate Greville were ‘utterly addicted’ to messaging and expected each other to reply ‘in seconds’, the court heard on Thursday;
  • Giggs’s lawyer, Chris Daw QC, said Ms Greville would complain about the footballer’s response times to her messages, but she told the court she had been ‘conditioned’ to behave like this;
  • The court also heard about an alleged incident in the Stafford Hotel in London in December 2019, when Ms Greville alleges she was thrown out of their room ‘naked’ by Giggs, who then ‘threw a laptop’ at her head; 
  • Mr Daw told the court that the pair had exchanged messages the next day and that he had offered to collect her from Shrewsbury the following morning; 
  • Asked why Giggs came to collect her when he could have got a taxi, she said: ‘He felt guilty about what he had done the night before.’ 
  • But the barrister responded: ‘This was the day after you claim he violently assaulted you and reading these messages we don’t even get a hint of that.’
  • Jurors were yesterday told how an email sent by Giggs to Ms Greville entitled ‘Blackmail’ that she believed was a sex tape actually showed her singing Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’. She told a court she had not opened the attachment.
  • Ms Greville also told a court how she ‘dropped her phone into a river’ and had her second phone pinched by muggers after being asked to share it with officers probing her assault claims; 
  • It was revealed on Wednesday that Giggs’s daughter discovered her father’s affair with Ms Greville after finding a digital Valentines Card sent to the soccer ace. Liberty Giggs found the Valentines message on her father’s phone in February 2018;
  • Ms Greville, meanwhile, batted-off suggestions she was a ‘gold digger’ from the footballer’s legal team after it was revealed she told a friend she was ‘not going to walk away’ from their ‘violent’ relationship ‘with nothing’;
  • In cross examination by the former footballer’s lawyer, Chris Daw QC, she rejected that she was seeking compensation from the star, saying: ‘Absolutely not’;
  • Ms Greville admitted to having sex with the former Manchester United star two months before leaving her husband, who she alleged in court was ‘controlling’;
  • Ms Greville claimed initially her and Giggs’ relationship had been ‘amazing’, but had then deteriorated before becoming ‘relentlessly awful’ while they lived together during the Covid pandemic;
  • Giggs is accused of having ‘full-on’ relationships with eight other women during his his ‘toxic’ six-year on-off relationship with Kate Greville;
  • Ms Greville told jurors she found evidence of his infidelity on an iPad and then confronted Giggs;
  • Ms Greville said she decided to leave Giggs while he was away managing Wales – and would move into a new flat;
  • She told the jury that when she attempted to leave the ex-Manchester United star over his ‘controlling’ behaviour, Giggs ‘bombarded’ her with up to 50 messages an hour and threatened to ruin her career;
  • The court heard that in one instance when she stopped answering him, he flew out to where she was staying in Dubai and said to her ‘let’s start a family, you are the only person I want to be with’; 
  • She told jurors that during two rows Giggs threw her naked out of their hotel room – and on one occasion threw a laptop at her head;
  • Ms Greville also claimed the former Wales winger ‘randomly’ sent a naked photo of himself to her, that she feared he could post ‘something of a really private nature’ on a work WhatsApp group and that he would call her by the name of his ex-wife, Stacey, as his ‘ultimate insult’;
  • Ms Greville says that during a row in at his £1.7 Manchester home in November 2020 Giggs ‘come out of nowhere’ and ‘deliberately headbutted’ her;
  • Giggs is in on trial accused of controlling and coercive behaviour against his ex-girlfriend between August 2017 and November 2020. He is also charged with assaulting Ms Greville and her sister Emma. He denies all charges.

 

Mr Daw replied: ‘That’s a form of programming he did on you?’ Ms Greville said: ‘He did it to me so I ended up doing it back to him.’

Mr Daw said: ‘You were both like that and utterly addicted to messaging backwards and forwards.’ She replied: ‘We messaged a lot yes.’

Mr Daw said: ‘You both expected instant replies or got upset.’ Ms Greville said: ‘He conditioned me to being like that.’

‘Ryan was attached to his phone so for him to not look at his phone for an hour was nor normal at all… If I had not replied to something for an hour I would have got a message like that.’

Mr Daw said: ‘That’s what I was saying previously, you were just as bad as each other.’

Ms Greville said: ‘I felt it was him making me like that, he was making me react and act like that. It wasn’t a natural reaction for me to act like that.’ She said Giggs made her feel ‘very insecure’. 

It comes after yesterday, under cross-examination, PR executive Ms Greville revealed she had sent the former Wales midfielder their sex videos weeks after she accused him of ‘blackmailing’ her.

The court also heard how she had told a friend that bruises on her arm were caused by the couple having ‘rough sex’ and not from an assault. 

Jurors had previously been told about an incident in Dubai in 2017 in which Giggs is accused of throwing Ms Greville naked out of a hotel room.

The court also heard how the pair’s relationship began as a ‘fairytale’, but she ended up being ‘a slave’ to his ‘every need and every demand’.

Ms Greville described the Wales manager ‘lovebombing’ her when their affair started. She said she saw him as her ‘knight in shining armour’ who would rescue her from an unhappy marriage.

But as time went on, Ms Greville told Giggs’s trial, he became ‘two different people’, and by their final months together he was ‘pretty much relentlessly awful’.

Jurors had also been told how a friend of Ms Greville had noticed bruises on her arms following the alleged assault, which at the time she had dismissed as ‘sex bruises’. She later told the police the marks were the result of an assault, which Giggs denies.

But Chris Daw QC, representing Giggs, asked about a message from Ms Greville sent three weeks after the alleged incident in the Middle East.

The message read: ‘Good morning, babeeee. OMG this is amazing. Our sex is out of this world.’

It was followed by messages from Ms Greville asking to meet him later that day, adding ‘it’s a long story’ but that one of her work colleagues had a problem with her ex-boyfriend who had hacked into her social media and police had been called.

Mr Daw asked why was she asking Giggs about the harassment of a woman, if he was ‘such a terrible abuser of women’, as she claimed.

Ms Greville replied: ‘Because at that point, it had not got to the point it had, not got the to extremities of what we discussed yesterday. It was gradual, it was subtle at that point it was not as bad as it was in 2019.’

By October 2017, Ms Greville had agreed to come back from the Middle East to live in Manchester and work for the hospitality company owned by Giggs and his former team-mate Gary Neville.

She had a ‘six-figure’ salary from the firm and rented an apartment in central Manchester, returning to the UK in January 2018.

Mr Daw suggested previously the couple had a long-distance relationship but now the dynamic had changed.

Ms Greville has told the court she returned to the UK thinking she would be in a relationship with Giggs, but he instead became more distant.

Mr Daw said in January 2018, Giggs had to be interviewed for the job of football manager of the Wales national team and he therefore had a lot of work to do to prepare.

Ms Greville said: ‘The work situation was not the reason for him not paying me much attention. There was obviously other things going on in his life as well.’

The court heard the couple had reconciled in May 2019, but by then Giggs had deleted their sex videos.

He then messaged Ms Greville: ‘Do you still have our naughty videos?’ To which she replied she had ‘most of them’, before Giggs asked her to resend them to him, the court heard.

Mr Daw said to Ms Greville: ‘This is just six weeks after you say he was threatening to blackmail you with sex tapes?’ 

Ms Greville agreed and confirmed she had sent him ‘a number of such videos’. Asked why she had sent them, she told the court: ‘Because we were back in a relationship.’ 

And on whether she had concerns that similar issues may arise between the couple in the future, Ms Greville said: ‘I thought he had changed and he was in a different place. This was the same cycle of things. He promised he would change.’ 

Giggs is in on trial accused of controlling and coercive behaviour against Ms Greville between August 2017 and November 2020.

He is also charged with assaulting Ms Greville and her sister Emma. He denies all charges against him and is on trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Yesterday, on Day Three of the trial, in which Ms Greville faced cross-examination from Giggs’ lawyers,  jurors heard:

  • Ms Greville’s claim that she ‘dropped her phone into a river’ and had her second phone pinched by muggers after being asked to share it with officers probing her assault claims;
  • How Giggs’s daughter discovered her father’s affair with married Ms Greville after finding a Valentines message from the PR executive;
  • That Ms Greville now has a 12-week old baby, with a new partner, after she claimed in court how Giggs told her she ‘didn’t deserve to be a parent’;
  • The ex-footballer’s lawyer, Chris Daw QC, claimed bruises on Ms Greville’s arm were caused by the pair engaging in ‘rough sex’ and not from an assault, as she had earlier claimed;
  • Mr Daw also read out messages between Giggs and Ms Greville in which the former footballer said he had bought sex toys from Agent Provocateur after she had asked him to be ‘more assertive’ in the bedroom; 
  • Ms Greville also batted-back claims she was a gold digger, after it was revealed she told a friend she was ‘not going to walk away’ from their ‘violent’ relationship ‘with nothing’;
  • The PR executive insisted she was initially attracted to Giggs ‘not because of his money and not because he was a footballer’ but because he was ‘very inspiring’.

Former Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs arrives at Manchester Crown Court in Manchester on day four of his domestic abuse trial

His former girlfriend, Kate Greville (pictured), 36, who earlier this week told the court how Giggs had 'headbutted her during a row at his Manchester mansion in November 2020, will today return to the witness box where she will be continue to be cross-examined by the footballer's legal team

His former girlfriend, Kate Greville (pictured), 36, who earlier this week told the court how Giggs had ‘headbutted her during a row at his Manchester mansion in November 2020, will today return to the witness box where she will be continue to be cross-examined by the footballer’s legal team

Giggs (left), 48, is accused of using controlling and coercive behaviour against Kate Greville (right), 36, between August 2017 and November 2020. The pair are pictured here on holiday in 2018

Giggs (left), 48, is accused of using controlling and coercive behaviour against Kate Greville (right), 36, between August 2017 and November 2020. The pair are pictured here on holiday in 2018

Ryan Giggs at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday, watching ex-girlfriend Kate Greville giving evidence on police video played to the jury after he is alleged to have headbutted her

Ryan Giggs at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday, watching ex-girlfriend Kate Greville giving evidence on police video played to the jury after he is alleged to have headbutted her

Today the court heard how Giggs was ‘entirely supportive’ of his former girlfriend setting up her own business despite her claiming that he often undermined her career.

Ryan Giggs’s ex-girlfriend tells court how former footballer ‘kicked her off a bed’ during row in London hotel room

Ryan Giggs’s ex-girlfriend today claimed in court that the former footballer ‘kicked her off a bed’ during a row in a London hotel room.

Giggs’ barrister Chris Daw QC today referred to an alleged incident at the Stafford Hotel in London, in December 2019.

Referring to Ms Greville’s witness statement, he said: ‘You said ‘Giggs threw a bag at my head with a laptop in it which caused my head to swell and bruise, kicked me out of bed and threw me out of the hotel room naked again’.

‘You said the first time he was abusive to me was in a Dubai hotel room three years ago. ‘He dragged me by my arms and threw me out of the hotel room naked and then you say the second was at a hotel room in London’.

‘In your interview, you said he kicked you off the bed so hard you landed on the floor.

The barrister said: ‘Is that your evidence? He kicked you so hard you fell off the bed or in your interview were you trying to make everything sound as bad as it could?’

Ms Greville replied: ‘No it was 100 per cent what happened.’

The barrister referred to messages between Giggs and Ms Greville at the time of the trip to London, describing them as ‘good natured’ and ‘good humoured’ the day after the alleged incident on December 6.

On the following day, Ms Greville sent a message to Giggs while on a train to a wedding in Shrewsbury, saying ‘OMG dying’ because she had a hangover.

Giggs replied to her saying: ‘Ropey’.

The barrister pointed out that there was nothing to suggest that she had been violently assaulted the day before.

Ms Greville said: ‘No, because he made me feel like it was my fault.’

The court heard Giggs travelled from London to Manchester and he picked Ms Greville up from Shrewsbury the next day

She messaged him to say: ‘Thank you for coming to get me, it’s very lovely of you.’

She said: ‘I needed to be at a work thing with him in Manchester and there were no trains from Shrewsbury.’

Asked why Giggs came to collect her when he could have got a taxi, she said: ‘He felt guilty about what he had done the night before.’

The barrister said: ‘This was the day after you claim he violently assaulted you and reading these messages we don’t even get a hint of that.’

Ms Greville said: ‘He made me feel like it was his fault, he made me feel insecure and made me feel I couldn’t have a problem with what happened because it was my fault.’

Mr Daw told the court about a message sent by Ms Greville in July 2019 saying; ‘I need to talk about setting up my business. Not now but when we are together. I need some help with accounts … need your help and advice.’

Giggs replied: ‘I will sort everything baby xx.’ Mr Daw told her: ‘You were actively pursuing different career options… and he was entirely supportive.’ She agreed and said: ‘We were in a relationship and that’s what people in relationships tend to do.’

But she later added that he would undermine her. She said: ‘When I originally said I was going to leave GG he didn’t want me to leave at all. That was a conversation. He told me in the office he didn’t want me to leave.’

‘He was like two different people. He’d say all these words but his actions didn’t match his words.

‘He would pepper the niceness with horribleness, and the other way around as well.’

Giggs’ barrister Chris Daw QC today referred to an alleged incident at the Stafford Hotel in London, in December 2019.

Mr Daw said Giggs’ version of events on the night of the Stafford Hotel incident was that the pair had been at a work function and Ms Greville accused Giggs of flirting with a woman he had been paired with for a crazy golf competition.

Ms Greville said she had accused him of flirting but denied that she tried to ‘wind him up’ by flirting with another man at a club later on.

Mr Daw said that the next morning ‘you said to him: ‘I was so drunk I don’t remember much about that night”.

Ms Greville told the court: ‘While we were at breakfast I went to touch my head and my head was hurting. I said: ‘Did you throw a bag at me last night?’ and he said: ‘Yes, but you wound me up that much you made me do it’.’

Mr Daw said: ‘That’s all just lies, isn’t it?’

Ms Greville replied: ‘No, absolutely not.’

Referring to Ms Greville’s witness statement about the incident itself, he said: ‘You said ‘Giggs threw a bag at my head with a laptop in it which caused my head to swell and bruise, kicked me out of bed and threw me out of the hotel room naked again’.

‘You said the first time he was abusive to me was in a Dubai hotel room three years ago. ‘He dragged me by my arms and threw me out of the hotel room naked and then you say the second was at a hotel room in London’.

‘In your interview, you said he kicked you off the bed so hard you landed on the floor.

The barrister said: ‘Is that your evidence? He kicked you so hard you fell off the bed or in your interview were you trying to make everything sound as bad as it could?’

Ms Greville replied: ‘No it was 100 per cent what happened.’

The barrister referred to messages between Giggs and Ms Greville at the time of the trip to London, describing them as ‘good natured’ and ‘good humoured’ the day after the alleged incident on December 6.

On the following day, Ms Greville sent a message to Giggs while on a train to a wedding in Shrewsbury, saying ‘OMG dying’ because she had a hangover.

Giggs replied to her saying: ‘Ropey’.

The barrister pointed out that there was nothing to suggest that she had been violently assaulted the day before.

Ms Greville said: ‘No, because he made me feel like it was my fault.’

The court heard Giggs travelled from London to Manchester and he picked Ms Greville up from Shrewsbury the next day

Ryan Giggs’s ex-girlfriend ‘went ballistic’ after he called her by the name of his former wife Stacey

Kate Greville ‘went ballistic’ at Ryan Giggs after he accidentally called her by the name of his ex-wife while they were out with friends on holiday in Dubai, a court today heard.

His barrister said the footballer had made the gaffe ‘over the course of a few rose wines’.

Giggs had called her ‘Stace’ but then quickly corrected himself and said ‘Kate’.

In earlier evidence, Ms Greville said that Giggs would call her ‘Stacey’ as the ‘ultimate insult’.

His lawyer said that was the reason for her anger at Giggs, not an incident a few days before when she accused him of pulling her bag and causing her to fall on her knee, resulting in bruising.

Mr Daw said: ‘An unfortunate slip of the tongue had caused you to go ballistic.’

He said it was the ‘entire source’ of her anger at Giggs to which she replied: ‘I wasn’t angry, I was upset and when I get upset I go silent and Ryan didn’t like me going silent.’

 

She messaged him to say: ‘Thank you for coming to get me, it’s very lovely of you.’ She said: ‘I needed to be at a work thing with him in Manchester and there were no trains from Shrewsbury.’

Asked why Giggs came to collect her when he could have got a taxi, she said: ‘He felt guilty about what he had done the night before.’

The barrister said: ‘This was the day after you claim he violently assaulted you and reading these messages we don’t even get a hint of that.’

Ms Greville said: ‘He made me feel like it was his fault, he made me feel insecure and made me feel I couldn’t have a problem with what happened because it was my fault.’

Yesterday, Mr Daw QC, asked why Ms Greville had not told her friend and business partner Elsa Roodt about an alleged assault in Dubai when asked.

Ms Greville, sat behind a curtain shielded from Giggs and the public gallery, said: ‘I was embarrassed and I didn’t want to admit it.’

Mr Daw said: ‘It was a bruise caused by rough sex that the two of you enjoyed a lot.’  Ms Greville replied: ‘That bruise was not caused by rough sex.’

The court also heard how a few days after the alleged Dubai incident Ms Greville messaged a photograph of herself to Giggs.

The message read: ‘Tan is coming along nicely. My sex bruise is coming along nicely too!!’

Mr Daw added: ‘The truth of it is you did from time to time get bruises from sex.’ Ms Greville said: ‘Not that I recall.’

Confirming that she had not reported the alleged assault to police in Dubai, she said: ‘No, I didn’t admit to the assault because I was embarrassed but I told Elsa we had argued. 

‘I was later to work, visibly shaken and very upset which was evident that day. I tried to play down the bruising on my arm.’

Digging deeper into the pair’s sex life, Mr Daw also told the court that Giggs had purchased and shared images of sex toys, including a paddle and handcuffs from lingerie brand Agent Provocateur.

Mr Daw said his client had bought the sex toys after Ms Greville had asked him to be ‘more assertive’ in the bedroom.

Jurors in the former-Manchester United star's domestic assault trial had previously been told about an incident in Dubai in 2017 in which Giggs is accused of throwing Ms Greville naked out of a hotel room

Jurors in the former-Manchester United star’s domestic assault trial had previously been told about an incident in Dubai in 2017 in which Giggs is accused of throwing Ms Greville naked out of a hotel room

Ms Greville has told the court she returned to the UK from the Middle East thinking she would be in a relationship with Giggs, but he instead became more distant

Ms Greville has told the court she returned to the UK from the Middle East thinking she would be in a relationship with Giggs, but he instead became more distant

Video in ‘Blackmail’ email sent by Ryan Giggs to ex-girlfriend was not a sex tape, but was a video of her singing ‘Last Christmas’

The ‘Blackmail’ e-mail message sent by Ryan Giggs to his ex-girlfriend did not contain a sex tape, but instead was a video of her singing Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’, a court yesterday heard.

 Jurors had previously heard how Ms Greville had received the message with a video clip, which she initially believed was a sex tape and that she feared the footballer would forward to her work WhatsApp group.

However the court heard the video attachment, which she did not open, was a clip of Ms Greville and another woman at a Christmas party dancing to Wham! hit ‘Last Christmas’.

The video shows the women dressed in black with Santa hats on dancing to a Christmas song, followed by two men beat boxing. 

Referring to the fact that Ms Greville said she deleted the attachment without viewing it, the barrister said: ‘You said it was ‘One of our videos we had done’, you meant a sexual video.’

Ms Greville said: ‘That’s what I thought it was but I didn’t view it.’

The barrister said: ‘You made a number of private videos and they were obviously not to be shared with other people and were not shared with other people. 

‘You said he was going to send the video to the group. Was he blackmailing you by sending a sexual video to the WhatsApp group?

The barrister told her: ‘You knew full well it wasn’t a sexual video, because you looked at it.’ Ms Greville said: ‘I don’t recall watching it.’

Ms Greville said she later handed her laptop over to police for them to look for it. The court also heard Ms Greville sent Giggs a number of sex videos six weeks after she had accused him of trying to blackmail her.

She sent him the explicit videos in May 2019 after they had reconciled. Giggs said he had deleted the films.

Giggs messaged her: ‘Do you still have our naughty videos?’ to which Ms Greville replied ‘yes, most of them.’

Giggs asked her to send the films to which she did. Asked why she did so so soon after fearing he would leak the explicit films, she said: ‘Because we were back in a relationship. I thought he’d changed, I thought we were in a different place.’

In a series of messages, read out in court by Mr Daw, Ms Greville messaged: ‘I want you, rough.’

Mr Giggs messaged: ‘Do you? I’m scared of hurting you. Ms Greville replied: ‘I want it to hurt, not in a weird way. I want you to surprise and shock me.’

Mr Giggs messaged: ‘It’s a fine line.’ Ms Greville replied: ‘Well we’ll just have to have fun finding that line then.’

The court heard Giggs then sent a picture of a paddle from Agent Provocateur. Ms Greville messaged: ‘What is that?’ Mr Giggs replied: ‘You asked me to be a bit more assertive.’

Ms Greville then sent: ‘When are we using this?’ prompting Mr Giggs to reply: ‘After I use these badboys,’ sharing a picture of handcuffs.

Ms Greville then replied: ‘They’re amazing… Oh my god this is brilliant.’

Questioning the witness, Mr Daw said: ‘You’re saying you didn’t receive any kind of bruise from sex. Ms Greville said: ‘I said not that I recall. We never used that paddle, not once.

Mr Daw said: ‘The sex bruise was a joke, not a rouse. It was something you were taking pleasure in.’ Ms Greville said: ‘I was joking about it being a sex bruise, I was making light of telling Elsa it was a sex bruise which was wrong.’

It comes as jurors yesterday heard evidence from Ms Greville, who said Giggs had told her that she ‘did not deserve to be a parent’ during a blazing row between the pair.

She also told the court how the ex-Manchester united star ‘deliberately headbutted’ her during a row at his £1.7million mansion in Worsley in November 2020.

Ms Greville yesterday broke down in tears as she said of the former Wales manager: ‘He came at me from nowhere and headbutted me in my face. 

‘I fell backwards, my lip instantly swelled. I put my hands over my mouth and I could taste the blood.’

It comes as the court yesterday heard more about the ‘Blackmail’ e-mail message sent by Giggs to Ms Greville. 

Jurors had previously heard how Ms Greville had received the message with a video clip, which she initially believed was a sex tape and that she feared the footballer would forward to her work WhatsApp group.

However the court heard the video attachment, which she did not open, was a clip of Ms Greville and another woman at a Christmas party dancing to Wham! hit ‘Last Christmas’.

The video shows the women dressed in black with Santa hats on dancing to a Christmas song, followed by two men beat boxing. 

Referring to the fact that Ms Greville said she deleted the attachment without viewing it, the barrister said: ‘You said it was ‘One of our videos we had done’, you meant a sexual video.’

Ms Greville said: ‘That’s what I thought it was but I didn’t view it.’

The barrister said: ‘You made a number of private videos and they were obviously not to be shared with other people and were not shared with other people. 

‘You said he was going to send the video to the group. Was he blackmailing you by sending a sexual video to the WhatsApp group?

The barrister told her: ‘You knew full well it wasn’t a sexual video, because you looked at it.’ Ms Greville said: ‘I don’t recall watching it.’

Ms Greville said she later handed her laptop over to police for them to look for it.

It comes as Ms Greville yesterday batted off suggestions from the footballer’s legal team that was a ‘gold digger’, after it was revealed she told a friend she was ‘not going to walk away’ from their ‘violent’ relationship ‘with nothing’.

She yesterday told jurors in the domestic assault trial that she was initially attracted to Giggs ‘not because of his money and not because he was a footballer’ but because he was ‘very inspiring’.

In cross examination by the former Manchester United star’s lawyer, Mr Daw QC, Ms Greville was asked: ‘Did you tell your friend you weren’t going to walk away from Mr Giggs with nothing?’

Former Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs arriving at Manchester Crown Court yesterday, where he is accused of controlling and coercive behaviour against ex-girlfriend Kate Greville between August 2017 and November 2020

Former Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs arriving at Manchester Crown Court yesterday, where he is accused of controlling and coercive behaviour against ex-girlfriend Kate Greville between August 2017 and November 2020

Mr Daw also told the court that Giggs had purchased and shared images of sex toys, including a paddle and handcuffs from lingerie brand Agent Provocateur, after Ms Greville had asked him to be ‘more assertive’ in the bedroom. In a series of messages, read out in court, Ms Greville messaged: ‘I want you, rough’

Ms Greville confirmed: ‘Yes.’ However the PR executive said she was not after compensation from the former Wales midfielder. Asked if she was seeking damages from the 48-year-old, she said: ‘Absolutely not.’ 

Ryan Giggs’s ex-girlfriend ‘lost her phone in a river as she rescued her dog’ before another was stolen in the street 

Ryan Giggs’s ex-girlfriend today told a court how she ‘dropped her phone into a river’ and had her second phone pinched by muggers after being asked to share it with the police probing her assault claims.

Under-cross examination from Giggs’s lawyers in the footballer’s domestic assault trial, Kate Greville, 36, today claimed she was attempting to rescue her dog from the water when she lost hold of her iPhone.

She also claimed that a second phone was stolen from her hands by a ‘man on a bike’ as she walked along a street in Manchester – an incident she said left her ‘very distraught’.

With both phones gone, a court heard that police asked if they could instead access her iCloud account and she initially agreed. However she later withdrew her consent, because she was ‘scared’ that the contents of the iCloud could ‘damage’ her career.

Jurors were told Ms Greville later allowed police access to a ‘limited amount of information’ from her phone. But asked by Giggs’ lawyer, Chris Daw QC, if she had deleted anything ‘relevant’ in that period, she confirmed she had deleted ‘some’ messages to an ex-colleague.

Ms Greville, 36, also told the court how she and Giggs were both still married when the affair started, but, ‘if anything was put off by the fact that he was a footballer.’

The barrister asked her: ‘Did Ryan’s public profile and wealth have anything to do with your interest in him?

Ms Greville said: ‘He was very inspiring, I looked up to him in terms of a business sense, who had worked hard…’ 

‘He was more attractive because he was successful and had done well for himself, not because of his money and not because he was a footballer, if anything that put me off, him being a footballer.’

She admitted to having sex with the former Manchester United star two months before leaving her husband, who she alleged in court was ‘controlling’.

Ms Greville claimed initially her and Giggs’ relationship had been ‘amazing’, but had then deteriorated before becoming ‘relentlessly awful’ while they lived together during the Covid pandemic.

She said Giggs preyed on her ‘vulnerability’ and damaged relations with her friends and family and that she became ‘a slave to his every need and every demand’.

Ms Greville told the court Giggs would sometimes show her affection but was ‘aggressive’ a lot of the time and would sometimes use violence against her.

‘He damaged relationships with my friends and isolated me from certain people. He had a negative impact on relations with my family. ‘ 

Asked about her claims of violence against her, Ms Greville, who today told the court she is now the mother of 12-week baby with her new partner, said: ‘It wasn’t consistent violence, he wasn’t regularly violent but there were times in our relationship when he was violent.’

She was also asked if she had looked up the term coercive control during the pair’s relationship and said: ‘I’m really into psychology when Ryan was making me feel like I was going crazy, paranoid, I googled how I was feeling. The thing that came up was ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ and what I was experiencing was exactly the same as that. ‘

Today Ms Greville, who yesterday gave her evidence to jury members, faced prosecution by Giggs’ lawyer, Chris Daw QC. 

He began by asking Ms Greville about the pair’s relationship. She responded: ‘He damaged relationships with my friends and isolated me from certain people. He had a negative impact on relations with my family. ‘

Asked about the violent incidents, she said: ‘It wasn’t consistent violence, he wasn’t regularly violent but there were times in our relationship when he was violent.’

How Ryan Giggs and ex-girlfriend shared messages about Agent Provocateur sex toys after she asked him to be ‘more assertive’

Ryan Giggs and his ex-girlfriend shared messages about Agent Provocateur sex toys after she asked him to be ‘more assertive’ in the bedroom, a court today heard.

Giggs’s lawer, Chris Daw QC, poured over the messages with Kate Greville during his domestic assault trial at Manchester Crown Court today.

The messages were part of a line of questioning, in which Mr Daw suggested Ms Greville and Giggs had engaged in ‘rough sex’.

He suggested that bruises she claimed were from an assault during an incident in Dubai in 2017 was actually as a result from ‘rough sex’.

Mr Daw, reading out the messages, told the court that Ms Greville is said to have messaged Giggs saying: ‘I want you, rough.’

Mr Giggs messaged: ‘Do you? I’m scared of hurting you.

Ms Greville replied: ‘I want it to hurt, not in a weird way. I want you to surprise and shock me.’ Mr Giggs messaged: ‘It’s a fine line.’

‘Well we’ll just have to have fun finding that line then,’ Ms Greville replied.

The court heard Giggs then sent a picture of a paddle from Agent Provocateur.

Ms Greville messaged: ‘What is that?’

Mr Giggs replied: ‘You asked me to be a bit more assertive.’

Ms Greville then sent: ‘When are we using this?’ prompting Mr Giggs to reply: ‘After I use these badboys,’ sharing a picture of handcuffs.

Ms Greville then replied: ‘They’re amazing… Oh my god this is brilliant.’

Questioning the witness, Mr Daw said: ‘You’re saying you didn’t receive any kind of bruise from sex.

Ms Greville said: ‘I said not that I recall. We never used that paddle, not once.

Mr Daw said: ‘The sex bruise was a joke, not a rouse. It was something you were taking pleasure in.’

Ms Greville said: ‘I was joking about it being a sex bruise, I was making light of telling Elsa it was a sex bruise which was wrong.’

Mr Daw QC asked if she was seeking ‘a large sum of compensation’ and she replied: ‘Absolutely not ‘

She was asked if she had looked up the term coercive control and said: ‘I’m really into psychology when Ryan was making me feel like I was going crazy, paranoid, I googled how I was feeling. 

‘The thing that came up was ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ and what I was experiencing was exactly the same as that.’ 

The court also heard how Ms Greville seduced Giggs with a provocative photo of herself before their relationship began.

Ms Greville and Giggs were described as ‘prolific messagers’ by his QC who said there were 160 pages of messages between the former couple in the case which were a ‘tiny fraction’ of the messages actually sent. Ms Greville agreed.

Referring to messages sent between the pair in the summer of 2017, the QC brought up a message of photo of Ms Greville sent Giggs of her wearing a crop top and underwear.

Giggs messaged: ‘Amazing pout too!!X’. Ms Greville messaged: ‘Takes me back to your first abs picture, and I was like wow I’m in love.’ She then messaged: ‘It was so f***** naughty of me to send that picture.’

Giggs messaged: ‘I know, but you knew what you was doing.’ Ms Greville messaged: ‘I knew exactly what I was doing.’ The barrister asked Ms Greville if she knew what she was doing.

The witness responded: ‘I knew as soon as I got that signed shirt what would happen, this would be the start of a relationship. I did not get the signed shirt for a month.’

Mr Daw referred to the picture as ‘provocative’. Ms Greville, who had earlier suggested Giggs had taken advantage of her ‘vulnerability’ to get her into a relationship, said: ‘I knew showing a picture of me with my abs in my gym kit he would like it

She added: ‘I absolutely played a part in it, I never said I didn’t. 

‘He definitely pushed it and he made me aware he was interested. I was in an awful relationship with my husband which was awful. He [Mr Giggs] showed me attention and it was flattering. It felt like escapism, of course I knew what I was doing.’

She said she thought Giggs was her ‘knight in shining armour’ and was her ‘soulmate’ at the time.

However Ms Greville also told the court how the pair’s relationship soured. She said violence by Giggs was ‘not regular’ and he would use aggression more as a form of control.

Mr Daw asked: ‘Do you say he undermined your confidence, your self-esteem and was disparaging to you generally in those ways?’

She said: ‘Yes, on the whole he was, but on the other side it was like two extremes. Other times he would give me confidence.

‘He was not constantly awful, not constantly horrible. It was hot and cold. Two different people. The result of his behaviour … undermined my self-confidence.’

She said he had also undermined and damaged her business.

Ex-Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs arriving at court on Wednesday

Pictured: Kate Greville was seen walking her dog back in November 2020

Pictured left: Ex-Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs arriving at court on Wednesday. He is accused of attacking his ex-girlfriend Emma Greville (pictured right) and her sister

Ryan Giggs’ ex-girlfriend reveals how she has a 12-week-old baby – after yesterday telling a court how the footballer had told her that she ‘didn’t deserve to be a parent’

Ryan Giggs’ ex-girlfriend has today revealed how she has a 12-week-old baby – after yesterday telling a court how the footballer had told her that she ‘didn’t deserve to be a parent’.

Ms Greville, 36, made the revelation while being cross-examined by the former Manchester United star’s barrister Chris Daw QC at Manchester Crown Court this morning.

Asked if she had read any media reports about the start of the trial, in which Giggs is accused of assaulting her and using controlling and coercive behaviour, she replied: ‘I’ve got a 12-week-old baby, I’ve not got time to read things.’ 

It comes after she yesterday told a court how the footballer had told her that she ‘did not deserve to be a parent’ during a blazing row in their ‘toxic’ six-year on-and-off relationship.

The court heard was told that Ms Greville and Giggs got into a row about a trip they were going to take to Scotland.

Ms Greville said: ‘I was going to go on my own, he was saying he wanted to take me to Scotland, but it was a nine hour drive.

‘I said, ‘Fine, great you can take me’. He kept saying ‘It’s a nine-hour drive, I can’t believe it’.

‘Because it was such a long drive, it sounded like he didn’t want to take me. I said ‘Fine don’t take me, I’ll get a lift’ and I got that response.’

In his email referring to the row, Giggs messaged Ms Greville: ‘A horrible, horrible c***. The same as Stacey (Giggs’ ex-wife), exactly the same. You don’t deserve to be a parent.’

Ms Greville said: ‘We discussed about having children because that’s what I reality wanted, I was desperate to be a mum and he knew what to say to really hurt me.’

In his email Giggs accused her of making him look stupid about the Scotland trip with his mates. 

He wrote: ‘Only an evil, horrible c*** does that. Utterly astonishing. Now I look like a t*** telling my three of my friends I am going to Scotland at the weekend. I simply cannot believe you f****** did that. I am so f****** mad right now and I am scaring myself because I could do anything.’

Another text from Giggs said: ‘I hope your company fails too. We’ll tell people what a horrible c*** you really are. You’ve hurt me like no one else has. That’s closure, don’t ever contact me again.’

He later messaged: ‘Keep hiding behind anxiety too. Nothing to do with you being an evil horrible c***.’

He added: ‘I actually hate you for what you’ve done to me today. Hate you. HATE HATE HATE.’

Ms Greville said Giggs did eventually come to Scotland with her.

The court heard Ms Greville gave a statement the day before the start of the trial in which she said she had felt like ‘a slave’ to the defendant.

She said: ‘That is what it felt like. When Ryan said do something, I would do it.

‘There was resistance sometimes but he made me feel like I had to do what he said, otherwise there would be consequences.’

However Giggs’ barrister said that the footballer’s messages to Ms Greville over the course of their troubled relationship weren’t always nasty.

Ms Greville conceded that for the first four-and-a-half years their relationship was romantic, but that his behaviour towards her changed in around 2018 when she returned to Manchester from Dubai where she had been working.

He said: ‘Mr Giggs used appalling language, insulting and nasty words towards you. But that wasn’t typical of your relationship.

Ms Greville said: ‘Not at the beginning but over time it got worse.’ Mr Daw said: ‘There were only a handful of conversations when it got that bad.’

Ms Greville said: ‘Yes but only on messages, you weren’t privy to telephone conversations.’ Mr Daw said: ‘Do you agree the majority of the time he was kind and loving towards you?’

Ms Greville said: ‘At the beginning yes. For four-and-a-half years he was nice, for one-and-a-half years he wasn’t. By the end of the relationship it was relentlessly awful. 

‘The time it really ramped up and it was awful was during Covid when we were living together. When I returned back to Manchester (January 2018) that’s when he turned and there was a significant change in his behaviour.’

The barrister suggested the vast majority of the messages were not like those described.

Ms Greville said: ‘Yes they were, he hadn’t written it down before. He was, he just did it verbally. He sent it in emails because he couldn’t do it verbally and I was standing up for myself.’

Ms Greville’s claims that Giggs used to give her the ‘silent treatment’ were addressed by the star’s barrister.

Ms Greville said: ‘He was speaking to me but it wasn’t the same. He was off with me and not replying to messages. You see he makes excuses as to why he’s not replying and I’m saying ‘Do you still want this?’ because he was acting very differently.’

She was asked about messages she sent to Giggs in which she told him she ‘loved him’ and ‘missed him’.

Ms Greville said: ‘Ryan had this way of turning things on me and it was my fault so I felt I had to be overly loving to him because he would make me insecure and worried about the relationship so I would overcompensate to make things ok.’

Giggs’ barrister said the real problem in their relationship was that the former footballer couldn’t remain faithful.

Ms Greville replied: ‘It was part of the problem, it created issues but it wasn’t the whole problem. There was way more to it than that.’

The barrister said Ms Greville was asking the jury to ignore the messages because there were telephone conversations that could not be produced in evidence.

Ms Greville broke down in tears when the barrister said to her: ‘What you’re saying now is a complete pack of lies.’

The PR executive was also asked about the incident in Dubai, where she claimed she was locked out of a hotel room naked.

He said the argument began when Ms Greville accused Giggs of messaging another woman, but he told her he was messaging his daughter.

Ryan Giggs’ ex tells trial how former football ‘lovebombed’ her with messages at the start of their relationship

Ryan Giggs’ ex girlfriend said the former footballer ‘lovebombed’ her at the start of their relationship. 

During his trial for domestic assault, Kate Greville said: ‘I literally thought he was the best thing in the world, and it was a fairytale where we would end up together and have a family.’

Giggs’ barrister, Chris Daw QC, read out a number of messages sent by Giggs to Ms Greville in the early stage of their relationship.

They included: ‘You’re amazing Kate, you’re the most impressive girl I’ve met. I adore you.’ and ‘I’m so proud of what you’ve achieved, you should be so proud of yourself’.

Ms Greville said the defendant was supportive at the beginning of the relationship and accepted the pair were ‘prolific messagers’

Mr Daw said: ‘If we look at all these messages, that is far more typical of the messages you received than the messages referred to yesterday.’

The court heard the pair began an affair while both were married. The affair was later exposed in the press. 

Mr Daw said Ms Greville had put ‘relentless pressure’ on Giggs to leave his wife following their affair.

Ms Greville said: ‘Because he kept saying he was going to, so yes.’

Mr Daw said: ‘He had struggled because of the fact he had children, and that was a difficulty in him leaving his wife and the impact on them.’

The barrister said after the leak of Ms Greville and his relationship, Giggs and his wife’s marriage broke down.

The barrister said Ms Greville lived in Dubai at the time and had friends locally. ‘When you got back to the room Ryan asked you to leave,’ said the barrister.

Ms Greville said: ‘No we got into bed, I said something he didn’t like and he flipped.’

‘He asked you to go,’ said the barrister. Ms Greville said: ‘After he dragged my arm naked out of the door.’

But the barrister said: ‘I’m going to suggest that didn’t happen. He told you he didn’t want to be with you that night.’

Ms Greville said: ‘Yes.’ Mr Giggs’ lawyer said: ‘What I suggest is what Ryan did was put your things in suitcase in the corridor and asked you to go.’

Ms Greville said: ‘No he threw the suitcase, it was opened and all my clothes… I was completely naked and didn’t want to stand outside the room.’

The QC said this was not true and ‘manufactured’. He added: ‘I suggest there was no deliberate assault on you at all.’

Ms Greville said: ‘He did, he grabbed my wrist and caused bruising.’

Refuting the barrister’s suggestion that Giggs tried to take her hand off his wrist, she went on: ‘He dragged me out of bed, across the room, in the lounge/suite and threw my things in the corridor.’

Confirming that she had not reported the alleged assault to police in Dubai, she said: ‘No, I didn’t admit to the assault because I was embarrassed but I told Elsa we had argued. I was later to work, visibly shaken and very upset which was evident that day. I tried to play down the bruising on my arm.’

Yesterday the court was played Ms Greville’s 105 minute interview with detectives in November 2020 following the row, in which Giggs is also accused of having assaulted Ms Greville’s sister, Emma.

The court also heard how Giggs had engaged in ‘full-on’ affairs with eight women during ‘toxic’ six-year on-off relationship with Ms Greville.

The PR executive, who said the pair’s early relationship was like ‘like a love story from the movies’, told jurors how she attempted to leave the former Manchester United and Wales star over his alleged flings and ‘controlling’ behaviour.

However Giggs would ‘bombard’ her with up to 50 messages an hour and threatened to ruin her career.

In one instance when she stopped answering him, he flew out to where she was living in Dubai and said to her ‘let’s start a family, you are the only person I want to be with’.

Ms Greville went on: ‘Then he went back home and I found out he was dating another girl. I was absolutely devastated.’

She claims he denied it, saying the woman had a boyfriend and urged her to move back to Manchester with him and have a baby.

The court heard how the ex-Wales winger said in the messages, sent to ex-girlfriend Ms Greville: 'I am am so f****** mad right now I'm scaring myself because I could do anything,' before adding: 'I actually hate you for what you've done to me. Hate you. HATE HATE HATE...'. Pictured: A mock-up version of the messages read out in court

The court heard how the ex-Wales winger said in the messages, sent to ex-girlfriend Ms Greville: ‘I am am so f****** mad right now I’m scaring myself because I could do anything,’ before adding: ‘I actually hate you for what you’ve done to me. Hate you. HATE HATE HATE…’. Pictured: A mock-up version of the messages read out in court

One text from Giggs said: 'I hope your company fails too. We’ll tell people what a horrible c*** you really are. You’ve hurt me like no one else has. That’s closure, don’t ever contact me again'

One text from Giggs said: ‘I hope your company fails too. We’ll tell people what a horrible c*** you really are. You’ve hurt me like no one else has. That’s closure, don’t ever contact me again’

Ryan Giggs’s daughter discovered father’s affair with Kate Greville after finding digital Valentines card, court hears 

Ryan Giggs’s daughter discovered her father’s affair with Ms Greville after finding a digital Valentines Card sent to the soccer ace, a court today heard.

Liberty Giggs found the Valentines message on her father’s phone in February 2018.

Ms Greville had sent the message and said: ‘Happy Valentine’s Day baby. Three years ago I didn’t think I could be more proud of you. You are an inspiration.’

Cross-examining, Mr Dawsaid that Giggs’ daughter ‘put two and two together’ and realised that her father had started seeing Ms Greville in 2015 when he was still with Stacey, her mother.

Mr Daw QC said Giggs’ daughter was ‘very upset’ Ms Greville said she was unaware at the time that the teenager had found the Valentines message and said she first became aware ‘around a year later.’

The court heard how, in a separate incident, Giggs twice threw his then-girlfriend out of a hotel room while she was naked and on one occasion threw a laptop at her head.  

Ms Greville also claimed the former Wales winger ‘randomly’ sent a naked photo of himself to her, that she feared he could post ‘something of a really private nature’ on a work WhatsApp group and that he would call her by the name of his ex-wife, Stacey, as his ‘ultimate insult’.

She also told jurors Giggs would treat her ‘like his housemaid or his mum’, telling her she was stacking the dishwasher the wrong way, making the beds incorrectly, or complaining ‘if his tea was not ready on time’.

Yesterday, Ms Greville told Manchester Crown Court how Giggs ‘came at me from nowhere’ during a row over her finding evidence of eight alleged affairs ‘going back many years’ on his iPad. 

Ms Greville said her lip ‘instantly swelled’ during the incident at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, in November 2020, and that she believed she had also broken her elbow after he pinned her to the floor in their utility room as he tried to snatch her phone from her hand.

Ms Greville told the court that, during the incident, Giggs moved into the kitchen and refused to give her back her phone.

She said: ‘I said ”I’m glad the police are coming because you attacked me and I’ll tell them exactly what happened”. That’s when he came up to my face and headbutted me. He came at me from nowhere, grabbed me by the shoulders and headbutted me in the face. I said ”I can’t believe you’ve just done that”.

‘I was in shock and fell backwards, my lip instantly swelled so I put my hands over my mouth and I was really worried because I could taste the blood and thought he had split my lip open.

‘All the other times he had hurt me, this was different, he really wanted to hurt me, he looked me straight in the eyes and headbutted me.’

After police were called, she told the court how Giggs turned to her and said: ‘You need to think about this Kate, this could ruin me and it could ruin you.’

Ryan Giggs ‘used psychological game’ from self-help book ‘How to Win Friends’ to ‘reel in vulnerable girlfriend’ 

 Ryan Giggs used a ‘psychological game’ from self-help book ‘How to Win Friends’ to woo women, his ex-girlfriend today claimed in court.

Kate Greville told the court she was not happy and in a ‘controlling marriage’ in 2013, and noticed Giggs was interested in her.

She said Giggs used her name a great deal, a technique she had read about from the popular psychology book How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Mr Daw suggested she was implying there was some sort of ‘clever psychological game’ in play.

He said: ‘The impression you give is you only really had an affair with Ryan because you were unhappy and he basically reeled you in?’

Ms Greville replied: ‘I’m not saying it was all one-sided. I was fully involved in that. There was things about him that definitely were luring me into a relationship.’

Mr Daw said: ‘The truth is it’s a complete fiction Ryan was using psychological techniques on your vulnerabilities. It’s just rubbish?’

Ms Greville said: ‘Absolutely not. I felt like he was using techniques. I was vulnerable, that’s a fact. I was in a controlling relationship. That’s a fact.’

Ms Greville also told jurors how Giggs had ‘meant’ to harm her and that the alleged attack was different to all the other times she said he had hurt her.

Recalling the moment she said: ‘He said that the police had been called, that they were on their way and he was going to tell them that I attacked him and that I’m a psycho.

‘He was angry but there was cockiness to it. He was trying to bait me. We moved then to the kitchen. I reached out to try and get my phone.

‘I told him ‘I’m glad the police are coming because you attacked me and I’ll tell them exactly what happened’

‘And that was when he came forward to me and head butted me in the face. He came at me from nowhere, grabbed me by the shoulders and head butted my face.

‘He didn’t say sorry, he said nothing to me. I said: ‘I can’t believe you’ve just done that.’ I was in shock, I fell backwards, and I could feel my lip swell immediately. 

‘I put my hand over my mouth and could taste the blood. All the other times he hurt me, this was different, he meant to hurt me. He looked at me straight in the eyes and head butted me straight in the face.

‘He said ‘You need to think about this Kate, this could ruin me and it could ruin you.

‘He was saying ‘think about my job, my career, my kids’ and I said ‘you shouldn’t have done it then.’

Giggs was having ‘full-on’ affairs with eight other women during his ‘toxic’ six-year on-off relationship with Kate Greville, the court heard on Tuesday.

The PR executive, 36, made the discovery after accessing the football star’s iPad having ‘made it my mission to find out the truth’ about his other lovers, she told police.

She said how, during what she called a ‘cycle of abuse’, Giggs ‘dragged’ her out of the bedroom of a five-star hotel – leaving her naked in the corridor – after she accused him of ‘manically’ flirting with other women during a night out.

He then threw a bag containing her laptop at her head, giving her a ‘massive lump’, Manchester Crown Court heard.

When she attempted to leave him over his alleged flings and ‘controlling’ behaviour, Giggs would ‘bombard’ her with up to 50 messages an hour and threatened to ruin her career, she claimed.

Eventually she got into his iPad as she ‘needed to know the truth’ – and the ‘reality’ of his cheating was ‘way worse than I could imagine’, she said.

Former Manchester United Player Welsh coach Ryan Giggs and then girlfriend Kate Greville pictured together in Italy in 2018

Former Manchester United Player Welsh coach Ryan Giggs and then girlfriend Kate Greville pictured together in Italy in 2018

Ryan and Stacey Giggs  (pictured in 2010) were married for 10 years before they divorced

Ryan and Stacey Giggs  (pictured in 2010) were married for 10 years before they divorced

Giggs stood down in June as manager of the Wales national team following his arrest. 

The court heard that Ms Greville was employed by PR firm Tangerine for part of the alleged period of controlling behaviour and also by Giggs’ own company, GG Hospitality.

Giggs’ legal counsel, Chris Daw QC, said his client encouraged her career ambitions and went on to introduce most of her clients when she set up her business herself and earned a six-figure salary.

He said Ms Greville was ‘always completely financially independent’ and was free to travel and see her friends.

Giggs stood down in June as manager of the Wales national team following a period of leave since November 2020.

During his time at Old Trafford, Manchester United won 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League trophies, four FA Cups and three League Cups.

He won 64 caps for Wales and is co-owner of League Two side Salford City.

Giggs met Ms Greville in 2013 after she helped promote his Hotel Football venue, launched with ex-United teammate Gary Neville.

He divorced his wife Stacey in December 2017.  Giggs found love again with lingerie model, Zara Charles, 33, who has ‘supported’ him through the charges.

GIGGS’ ‘COERCIVE AND CONTROLLING BEHAVIOUR’ DETAILED TO JURY 

Ryan Giggs’ alleged assault on his former girlfriend, which prompted his arrest, was merely the culmination of years of abuse, the court heard.

Mr Wright detailed some of the incidents under which Giggs stands accused of using coercive or controlling behaviour and evidence of his ‘much uglier and more sinister side’.

The incidents included:

  • Messaging Ms Greville and/or blocking her when she was on nights out with others, or she asked about Giggs’ relationship with others.
  • Threatening to send images ‘of a personal nature’ to her friends.
  • Throwing her belongings out of his house when she questioned him about relationships with other women.
  • At a London hotel, rowing in the hotel suite and throwing her bag at her.
  • Appearing unwanted at her home or gym and contacting her friends to get her to speak to him again.

Mr Wright said these snapshots of his behaviour provided a ‘shaft of light’ on the real Ryan Giggs, who ‘stays in the dark, not the public persona’. 

The prosecutor added: ‘This was a manipulative, toxic, damaging relationship by a man upon a vulnerable woman.’

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