After taking the stand for the first time in his domestic violence trial, former Manchester United player Ryan Giggs admitted today that he had a “reputation for infidelity” and was a “love cheat.”
The ex-footballer, 48, today admitted to being ‘a flirt by nature’ and that he has ‘never’ been faithful to his ex or any of his girlfriends. He denied, however, ever having attacked a partner. When asked whether he had ever abused a female, Giggs said, “No.”
The former Wales midfielder’s frank appraisal of his romantic relationships came as he started giving testimony in his domestic violence trial at Manchester Crown Court today.
Giggs is accused of attacking his ex-girlfriend Kate Greville and her sister Emma in November 2020 at his house in Worsley, Greater Manchester.
Currently on trial, he rejects the allegations as well as utilising controlling and coercive behaviour against ex-girlfriend Kate during their ‘toxic’ six-year on-and-off relationship.
Following the conclusion of the prosecution’s case, in which Ms. Greville accused Giggs of cheating on her with as many as 12 other women throughout their relationship, the football star’s attorney, Chris Daw QC, today questioned his client.
He started by questioning Giggs about his on- and off-field reputation. Mr Daw asked: ‘To begin with, you are well known all over the world for two things. One, as a footballer?’
‘Yes,’ answered Giggs. Mr Daw said: ‘But you are also known for something else, you have a reputation for infidelity?’ Giggs replied: ‘Yes.’ Mr Daw said: ‘Is that reputation justified?’ Giggs said: ‘Yes.’
Chris Daw asked: ‘In the course of your relationships with women, up to and including Ms Greville, have you managed to be faithful to any of them?’ ‘No,’ said Giggs.
The barrister: ‘If an attractive woman has shown you interest regardless of your marital status, are you able to resist?’ Giggs replied: ‘No.’
Mr Daw said: ‘Are you a flirt by nature?’ ‘Yes,’ said Giggs.
He confirmed that he lied to his ex-wife Stacey and Ms Greville about his infidelities.
However he said he had never attacked his former partners.
Mr Daw asked: ‘Have you ever physically assaulted a woman?’ ‘No,’ said Giggs.
Mr Daw went on: ‘Either on November 1 2020 or on any other occasion?’ Giggs repeated: ‘No.’
His barrister asked: ‘Have you ever set out to control or coerce a woman in any way or in the ways alleged by Ms Greville?’ Giggs said: ‘No.’
Mr Daw continued: ‘Did you make Kate Greville a slave to your every need and every demand as she described?’ Giggs said: ‘I did not.’
It comes as the court heard that Giggs told detectives how he ‘caught’ his ex-girlfriend and her sister during a ‘scuffle’ at his £1.7million mansion, but insisted: ‘It was not deliberate’.
The ex-Wales midfielder, 48, gave a pre-prepared statement to officers hours after he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Kate Greville and her sister Emma during a row at his Manchester home in November 2020.
He told officers that he and Kate had initially ‘tussled’ after she took hold of the phone, and that Ms Greville had ‘caught’ him in the face ‘causing bleeding to the lip and inner mouth’.
He said he then ‘foolishly’ took hold of Ms Greville’s phone, leading to the pair again making contact. Ms Greville has previously claimed that Giggs ‘deliberaley headbutted’ her. But Giggs insisted in his police statement ‘At no time was there any attempt to harm either of them.’
In the statement – read by prosecutor Peter Wright QC during Giggs’ assault and controlling behaviour trial at Manchester Crown Court today – Giggs told DC Adam’ Agrebi and another officer that he had tried to ‘diffuse the situation’.
But he said in the statement: ‘I regret that this argument got so out of hand.’ He also told officers: ‘It is correct that unfortunately Kate and I got into an argument that resulted in us getting into a tussle.
‘She caught me in the face causing bleeding to my lip and inner mouth. I may have caught her and her sister during the scuffle. At no time was there any intent.’
Giggs said his phone had been taken by Ms Greville following a row between the pair – which started at the Stock Exchange Hotel in Manchester and had returned to his £1.7million mansion in Worsley, Greater Manchester.
He said that he had asked Ms Greville and Emma, who was dog sitting at the time, to leave his house in a taxi as she was too drunk to drive and her sister was not insured to drive the car.
He said he tried to ‘diffuse’ the situation further by getting a neighbour to call the police, and when she refused ‘I now had no option’ but to go back to the house and demand his phone back in order to dial 999.
With the sister still refusing to leave, Giggs said he went into the utility room to get Ms Greville’s phone and ‘rather foolishly I decided to keep hers’.
He continued: ‘I accept I should not have done this but I was emotional, angry and upset. She grabbed me by the hand and a scuffle broke out.
‘I accept during this scuffle my head clashed with her. What I am sure is that it was not deliberate.’
Giggs said he was ‘attacked’ adding: ‘I regret that this argument got so out of hand. Kate and I had a great week together and I was looking forward to our night at Stock Exchange hotel.
‘I sincerely hope this is not the end of our relationship and we can talk this through. At no point did I deliberately harm her or want to harm her.’
The court also heard Ryan Giggs was interviewed by police again in December 2020, a month after his first interview, in relation to an allegation of coercive and controlling behaviour after officers obtained more alleged details from Kate Greville.
In a prepared defence statement given to police and read in court by Mr Wright QC, he said: ‘I will not accept that my behaviour towards my former partner has been in any way controlling or coercive, nor that I have done any of the incidents in the manner described.’
He described Ms Greville in the statement as a ‘mature, strong, independent woman’ who he said was ‘successful’ in his own right.
Giggs also told police how Ms Greville had ‘ordered’ him to message women who she ‘incorrectly accused’ him of having affairs with and that she had offered to meet them in order to ‘ensure nothing was going on’.
In response to an allegation he had threatened to release intimate photos of Ms Greville and/or himself, Giggs’ statement said he ‘didn’t recall’ making the threat and would ‘never’ have released such material.
He said: ‘I would be terrified of the publicity that would be generated. Kate knows how I feel regarding the press and negative publicity.’
The statement said that even if a threat had been made ‘in jest or in drink,’ it would be ‘preposterous’ for Ms Greville to believe it would be carried out.
He told police he accepted their relationship was ‘not perfect’ but it was ‘mainly one of love and affection.’
And he said most of the alleged incidents – listed by Ms Greville as part of the prosecution’s against Giggs – occurred after she had ‘too much to drink’ and she became ‘entirely jealous’ when she was drunk.
He continued: ‘I would not react with violence. I would often walk away from incidents.’
Giggs said it had been suggested his arguments with Ms Greville were the result of him being defensive over allegations he was having affairs.
But he explained to officers at Swinton Police Station in Manchester that he had been living with Ms Greville, they had bought two dogs and he thought they were ‘planning for a future together’.
He said: ‘I feel extremely distressed, hurt and emotional by the way this relationship is being painted to me.’
Yesterday the court heard how Giggs was in his slippers and ‘virtually crying’ when he knocked on his neighbour’s door in the pouring rain and asked her to ‘sort out’ his girlfriend and phone the police.
Before the argument that ended in the former Wales midfielder allegedly headbutting his now ex-girlfriend, Kate Greville, he banged ‘very loudly’ on the door of neighbour Linda Cheung.
Mrs Cheung told the domestic assault trial how Giggs had visited her and told her that Ms Greville had accused him of cheating, sparking her to respond: ‘Oh Ryan, not this again.’
Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court yesterday, she said: ‘He asked me to help him. He said words to the effect of Kate had been accusing him of seeing other women and he wanted me to go and sort her out.’
She said that as the rain poured down, the ‘distressed’ Giggs asked her: ‘Can you call the police? She’s got my phone. She won’t leave.’
She told him she would not ring the police but offered him her phone if he needed to use it. She said a ‘distressed’ looking Giggs did not respond and just stared at her before walking back to his property.
In a statement to police, read out by court, Mrs Cheung told how Giggs had ‘tears in his eyes’ when he knocked on her door.
She said: ‘He was at my door virtually crying. He never went outside with his slippers on. I was thinking it must be urgent. He’s come out of the house in the rain in his slippers.’
Ryan Giggs’ lawyers yesterday denied the ex-Manchester United star deliberately elbowed his ex-girlfriend’s sister in the jaw during a bust-up at his £1.7million mansion.
His barrister, Christopher Daw QC, suggested any contact between the ex-footballer and Emma Greville as she tried to separate him from her sister was accidental.
Yesterday, in the trial, Emma Greville told jurors that Giggs’s elbow ‘made contact’ with her face during the incident. She said at the time she had tried to separate Giggs and Kate Greville, who were engaged in a row.
Emma also told jurors that Giggs had threatened to ‘headbutt’ her after ‘grabbing’ her sister by the shoulders and ‘headbutting’ her with ‘major force’ during the row.
In cross-examination, Mr Daw said any connection between Giggs and Emma was accidental as Giggs ‘backed away’ from her sister Kate.
He said: ‘There was no deliberate elbow.’ But Ms Greville answered ‘there was’. Ms Greville also admitted that she did not see how her sister and Giggs ended up on the floor prior to the alleged headbutt.
She told the court this morning that Giggs’ face was level her sister’s when he was lying on top of her.
The lawyer said that wasn’t the case and said Giggs had fallen and was ‘simply trying to get back up and move backwards.’
He asked Ms Greville: ‘Did you see him putting his arms up to protect his face from being hit by your sister?’ She replied ‘No’.
It comes as Emma Greville claimed how Giggs told her ‘I’ll headbutt you next’ during the row at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester.
Ms Greville was at the property on the night of the alleged assault as she was dog-sitting for the couple while they were on a night out in Manchester city centre.
Emma told the court that while at the house she received a message from her sister telling her: ‘Pack my stuff in the car, we’re leaving tonight’.
The message was sent as her sister returned home from the Stock Exchange Hotel after ‘confronting’ Giggs about his ‘cheating’.
Emma said she started packing her sister’s belongings into a car, before Giggs tried to call her on her phone.
She told the court that Giggs returned home 15 -20 minutes after her sister in a ‘visible mood’ and ‘was also very drunk’ and began collecting Ms Greville’s belongings before taking them into a hallway.
After hearing Giggs and her sister argue downstairs, Emma said: ‘Ryan came into the bedroom and told me to sort out my sister. I went downstairs to find Kate in the hallway, hugging the dog, upset, crying.
‘Ryan said ‘say your goodbyes, you won’t ever see him again’ to me and Kate. It was said in a snide manner that he had the power to keep the dog when he knew that dog was Kate’s.’
She said Giggs and her sister began arguing and he ordered them both to leave. Emma said she took the dog to the other room and heard her sister and Giggs arguing over who had Giggs’ phone.
Recalling the moment Emma said she was struck by Giggs she continued: ‘I went into the hallway and saw Ryan’s legs sticking out the doorway.
‘I went into the boot room to find Kate on her back and Ryan on top of her. Ryan was trying to grab Kate’s phone from her. His face was in line with her face. I can’t recall what she was saying but from her facial expressions I could tell she was in pain.
‘Kate said to me ‘Get him off me’ so I put both arms around his waist. And as she was using her legs to push him off, I was pulling.
‘As I was pulling him up, he was standing up and he turned to his right and his elbow touched my jaw and as a result I let go. It was not in a gentle manner, it was a ‘get off me’ manner for me to get off holding Ryan.’
Asked what her reaction was Emma said: ‘Shock. I was upset. I immediately called my parents.’
She also told the court that Giggs threatened to headbutt her moments after he had headbutted her sister.
She said: ‘They were arguing about the phone and I said to Ryan ‘Just give her the phone back and then we’ll go. I told him ‘I saw you on top of her and grab her phone so I know you have her phone. ‘He called me a f***ing liar.
‘Kate said to Ryan ‘See I’ve had proof’. She knew that I’d seen what happened. At that point he didn’t say anything. He’d gone from annoyed to extremely angry.
‘I think I asked him ‘why?’ I couldn’t recall exactly what he said. At that moment he put both hands on Kate’s shoulders and with force used his head to headbutt her in the face.
‘Afterwards he told me it was my fault that he’d headbutted Kate and turned to me and said ‘I’ll headbutt you next’.
‘He was extremely angry. I felt fear as he’d just headbutted Kate and I thought he’d do the same to me.’
Recalling her sister’s reaction after being struck, Emma said: ‘Kate fell to the ground screaming, covering her face.
‘He (Giggs) walked towards the kitchen and didn’t say much.’
Emma said she was asked by her sister to call the police and now a lot calmer, Giggs pleaded with her not to.
She added: ‘He said ‘Don’t call the police, think about my daughter. Think about my career’.’
Earlier Emma told the court that the pair had been involved in a ‘serious argument’ blew up while they were in Scotland.
She said she had accompanied her sister, Giggs, and two of his friends on a trip north of the border to go and buy a dog and noticed the pair ‘bickering’ while in a pub.
She told the court that there was a ‘frostiness’ in the couple’s relationship, which she said had started as ‘loving’ but had become ‘distant’.
Giving evidence in the former Manchester United star’s assault and controlling behaviour trial, she said: ‘On the second night (in Scotland) we were in the pub and they’d been bickering. I don’t know what about.
‘I went to the toilet and came back and Ryan wasn’t sitting at the table and one of his friends was not at the table.Kate was upset and talking to the friend who remained at the table.’
Asked by Mr Wright QC, prosecuting, where Giggs was, she replied: ‘Kate said his friend had taken him outside. I could just tell way Kate was acting they’d had a serious argument.’
Describing the change in her sister’s relationship, Emma said: ‘It went from a loving relationship to being distant. You could feel the frostiness between them.’
Said said she had seen ‘verbal conflict’ but not physical until the night of the alleged headbutt on November 1 2020
It comes after the court was yesterday told how Kate Greville told a friend that bruising on her wrist was because of ‘rough sex’ with the former football star the night before.