Family torn to shreds

Disgraced Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys had an affair ‘with his actress daughter’s friend’ after his wife of 36 years battled cancer. Now they have defied a 30-year age gap to wed

- TOM BRYANT

Gazing into each other’s eyes on a sun-kissed bank beside the River Dart, TV presenter Richard Keys and new wife Lucie Rose soaked up the applause.

In a stunning wedding gown, Lucie glowed during the €20,000 ceremony in Kingswear, Devon. Richard, who is 31 years her senior, scrubbed up well in a cream Hugo Boss suit.

But while the open-air civil ceremony at the weekend was a joyous occasion on the face of it, some things were less harmonious behind the scenes.

Neither of Richard’s children being present was perhaps the biggest clue.

In fact, 66-year-old Richard’s relationship with Lucie, 35, has left a trail of destruction. The saga began seven years ago when Richard’s then-wife Julia saw incriminating messages from Lucie on his phone.

He was asleep when his mobile lit up with “intimate” WhatsApps.

It brought a swift end to 36 years of marriage, which came at a time when she was recovering from thyroid cancer.

Things were about to get worse as Richard’s daughter Jemma revealed that lawyer Lucie was her friend.

Lucie and Richard are understood to have been introduced in 2016 by a mutual acquaintance on the expat social circuit in Qatar, where he was working as a presenter for BeIn Sports.

Enraged, former Hollyoaks actress Jemma began bombarding Lucie with abusive late-night text messages.