Nicola Sturgeon laughs off online gossip of affair with French diplomat

A need for privacy in wake of internet rumours were ‘part of the reason’ for resignation, says ex-SNP leader

The former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has laughed off online rumours of an affair with a French female diplomat, but said the need to seek more privacy was “part of the reason” for her resignation.

Among the claims she dismissed in the podcast were that she was a “secret lesbian” and had an extramarital relationship with a French diplomat, with the pair buying a house from Andy Murray’s mother, Judy, as a love nest.

Asked by BBC’s Glenn Campbell: “Which French diplomat are you having an affair with?”, Ms Sturgeon laughed and responded: “I’ll tell you off camera which one it is supposed to be, but whichever one it is we’ve actually had a laugh about it.”

The former minister has told a new BBC Scotland podcast that online gossip about her had been “part of the reason” behind the decision.

She said: “I’m not naive, I’m not of the view that I will step down one day and be completely anonymous the next day, I understand the realities of what I have done and I’ll still be in parliament, but I want to have a bit more privacy.”

“I want to have a bit more anonymity and I just want to protect some of what people take for granted in their lives that I’ve forgotten to have.”

Other rumours spread about Ms Sturgeon said she had a global property portfolio and had a super-injunction in place to hide the truth.

“I read accounts of my life on social media and I think, ‘You know, it is so much more glamorous sounding and so much more exciting’,” she said.

The former Scottish first minister surprisingly resigned as party leader in February, citing the funeral of independence activist Allan Angus as the moment that cemented her decision.

Replaced as first minister this week by Humza Yousaf, Ms Sturgeon said the contest had been “somewhat fractious” and the party was undergoing “growing pains”.

Mr Yousaf has had to defend his decision to include a minister for independence in his new government team – coming under fire for having a “taxpayer-funded nationalist campaigner” in the new ministerial role.

His nearest rival, Kate Forbes, refused to join his cabinet – rejecting a big demotion from finance secretary to rural affairs secretary.

And a former minister turned SNP rebel has called for the end of the powersharing agreement between the SNP and the Greens as he dubbed the left-wing party partners “wine bar pseudo-intellectuals”.

Fergus Ewing attacked the Scottish Greens after Mr Yousaf made the decision to continue the deal that put their co-leaders in government and solidified a pro-independence majority in Holyrood.

“In politics you are judged by what you do or fail to do; but also judged by the alliances you make,” he wrote in the Daily Mail on Saturday.

“We’ve allied ourselves to a small group of fringe extremists that want to dismantle our economy, put hundreds of thousands on the dole and basically close down rural Scotland.”