Anish Vij
Former Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys has responded to claims he cheated on his 'terminally ill wife' before tying the knot with his daughter's friend.
The 66-year-old, who left Sky Sports in 2011 after making sexist comments about a female linesman, reportedly got married to his daughter Jemma's friend, Lucie Rose, 35, in 2023.
In 2016, Keys' then-wife Julia filed for divorce after 36 years, citing his alleged infidelity while he was working for beIN in Qatar.
"The lies began," Julia told The Sun at the time, adding: "I don’t feel bitter towards Lucie, but deeply disappointed that she could devastate our family like this."
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Meanwhile, Keys told The Athletic in 2019: “If people believe that I walked away with my wife fighting cancer with a friend of my daughter’s, I can’t change that now.
“Tell a lie twice and it becomes the truth. Tell it on social media and it haunts you forever."
Jemma reportedly did not attend her father's wedding.
Taking to X on Saturday evening (27 July), the football presenter hit back at another user who criticised Keys' tribute post following the death of a former Sky Sports rugby league commentator who died from cancer.
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The user tweeted: "A comment about class when you cheated on your terminally ill misses with your daughters friend has some sort of irony doesn’t it gorilla hands."
And Keys hit back at the claims, writing: "You guys have no idea. Terminally ill? She's still here - Alive and Kicking. Behave yourself. It's time for this nonsense to stop."
Another user also commented: "Oh come on Richard. I was in the Cardinal Clinic in Windsor with your ex-wife Julia."
Again, Keys replied: "One of the unwritten rules of therapy of course is that you don't ever break confidences. But you do."
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In June 2023, he reportedly got married to Rose, who is said to be 32 years younger than him.
"I don't know what happened. I don't know why our marriage ended the way it did, but my wife was fighting cancer for seven years before I left her and she had been in remission for seven years," Keys added in his interview with The Athletic.
"She and I went to London every day of her fight, prior to a ground-breaking operation that saw her in a period of recovery.
"Julia had been in remission for seven years. I know how hard it was for her when things went wrong.
"I wasn't going to start engaging in a tit-for-tat, he-said, she-said, respond to everything that was said about me."
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LADbible has contacted a representative of Richard Keys for comment.