Ryan Giggs ‘had eight-year affair with brother’s wife’

Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs has been having a secret affair for eight years with his brother's wife, according to the News of the World today. Natasha, who married his brother Rhodri in 2010, is reported to have spilled the beans after learning recently that Ryan was alleged to have been having an affair with another woman, Imogen Thomas.

That allegation came to light when it was revealed in the House of Commons last month that Giggs was the footballer who had taken out a controversial super-injunction to protect his identity in the Thomas case.

"It's a terrible secret I've had to keep for too long now," Natasha told a friend who passed her story on to the News of the World [HL]. "I don't want it weighing on my conscience any more. I don't want to have to carry on lying."

Natasha reportedly believed that to go on keeping it secret was unfair on her husband Rhodri, on her children and on "anyone else who's involved" - by whom she presumably meant Giggs's wife, Stacey.

Natasha, 28, is reported by the News of the World to have confessed to her friend: "It's the worst possible betrayal. Ryan was never romantic to me. He never told me he loved me. It was all about sex."

She said they conducted their affair in various Manchester hotels and more than once in unfurnished flats to which she had access as an estate agent. They reportedly slept together as recently as April 9.

The News of the World claims Giggs and Natasha first met in March 2003 at the Sugar Lounge, a Manchester nightclub. Giggs was not yet married - that happened in September 2007 - but Stacey was already his girlfriend and was pregnant with their first child.

At the Sugar Lounge that night, Giggs reportedly complimented Natasha on her looks and asked for her number. They began a relationship soon after.

In 2005, during a gap in their afair, she accepted a marriage proposal from Giggs's brother Rhodri - who asked Ryan to be his best man.

"The best man thing didn't stop Ryan approaching me," Natasha told her friend, according to the News of the World. "He said: 'You've changed your number. Text me your new one.'"

In August 2006, Natasha had a child by Rhodri Giggs and two months later Stacey had a second child with Ryan Giggs. Within hours of becoming a father for the second time, Ryan Giggs "pestered" Natasha to see him. "The day after his son was born we met up and had sex," the News of the World quotes Natasha as saying. "Stacey was still in hospital".

The News of the World suggests that Giggs's behaviour "flies in the face of the carefully-crafted family man image that helped make him a multi-millionaire and global sporting idol". ·