"Losing my best mate destroyed my marriage": Craig Bellamy reveals how his life fell apart after Gary Speed's death
Football star Craig Bellamy has tearfully revealed how his marriage is over, saying: âItâs the worst time in my life ever.â
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, the former ÂManchester City and Liverpool striker tells how the death of close friend Gary Speed left him so heartbroken it destroyed his relationship with wife Claire.
The Cardiff City player has now moved out the ÂŁ2million home he shared with his childhood sweetheart and their three children, saying he no longer cares about football.
âIâve been living on my own for eight weeks now,â he says. âThereâs no one else involved. I wish there was. I wish I had someone and I wish she (Claire) had someone. That would make it easier.
âItâs hit me hard. Itâs nothing to do with football and itâs nothing to do with me as a footballer. I couldnât give a s*** about football.
âItâs about real people, human Âbeings, kids and families. I canât tell you how hard it is. Itâs the worst time in my life ever.â
Speaking at the flat he has rented just outside the city, tears fill his eyes as he speaks about Speed, 42, who was found Âhanging in the garage of his home in Cheshire last November.
The father of two was Bellamyâs former boss and also used to play with him at ÂNewcastle.
âLosing my best mate has affected everything,â Bellamy says. âI canât believe how hard it is. It has had an effect on everything.
âHe was the best mate Iâve ever had. Itâs sad but unfortunately it got to my Âmarriage. Iâm here and sheâs there.
âI donât know if thatâs it for us. All I know is that my best mate has gone. Iâm Âstruggling. I canât lie.â
His comments come only weeks after he starred at the Olympics as captain of Team GB. He bravely put aside his Âpersonal Âheartache as he led the team as far as the Âquarter finals.
Bellamy, 33, known as the bad boy of Âfootball, first started going out with Claire, also 33, when they were schoolchildren and they married in 2006.
He has often spoken of how important his wife and three children are to him.
âI surround myself with family,â he said last August. âI have got the most Âincredible wife in the world and Âunbelievable kids.â
And in an interview last year he spoke revealingly about how he often suffered from homesickness while away playing for his team.
âI spent nights crying myself to sleep,â he said. âI look at Âeverything I have. I look at my children and everything I have is due to that. Now even if I spend Friday night away in a hotel, just one night, I canât wait to get home.
âBefore I would spend all my hours at training, come home, sleep, eat, watch Âfootball, sleep and go back to training the next day. Now I do the school run, train, pick up my daughter. I am Âliving in the real world. I am a father now. That has given me more satisfaction than Âfootball.â
But all that fell apart when his Ârelationship with Claire broke down. He left the family home in a village just outside Cardiff after the couple had an emotional heart-to-heart.
A friend said: âClaire asked Craig to leave and he agreed. Heâs really close to his kids, so to leave them and be on his own is a big deal. It all happened so Âsuddenly.
âA businessman friend of his lives in a beautiful converted pub which he has agreed to rent to Craig. He told him he was in a desperate hurry and that he would have to leave all his furniture there for him.
âEveryone is hoping it isnât the end for him and Claire but it doesnât look good.â
On Friday morning he drove his car out of the propertyâs Âunderground car park and spent three hours at ÂCardiff Cityâs training ground.
He spent last week looking for a more Âpermanent new home. On Thursday, he was spotted at a ÂCardiff Âlettings agency just an hour before being seen carrying bags into a new apartment.
Meanwhile, earlier this week he was forced to deny online claims that he had retired âwith Âimmediate Âeffectâ.
He issued a statement saying he was âfully Âcommittedâ to playing football and that he hoped to be fit for a match next Saturday.
Cardiff City boss ÂMalky Mackay, forced to Ârespond to rumours on Twitter that Bellamy was about to quit the game for Ââundisclosed Âreasonsâ, told reporters: âThere are plenty of Ârumours going about, but Iâve told you, heâs torn his calf.â
Bellamy is one of Âfootballâs most Âcontroversial figures. In January 2005 he repeatedly clashed with former ÂNewcastle boss Graeme Souness over his insistence on playing Bellamy in midfield.
In March 2007, an allegedly drunk Bellamy confronted teammate John Arne Riise armed with a golf club. Then, after netting in his next game, Bellamy celebrated with a golf swing in a mocking reference to the infamous night out.
Two years later, during a game for Manchester City against arch-rivals United, he slapped a pitch invader as stewards attempted to remove the man.
In March 2010, after scoring twice against Chelsea, Bellamy launched a scathing attack on Bluesâ captain John Terry over his affair with the partner of teammate Wayne Bridge.
He said: âI know what JT is like. ÂNothing surprises me about that guy.â
And last January he was charged with common Âassault after inflicting Âfacial injuries on two men during a night out in Cardiff. He was later released with a caution.
All this came after he Âinsisted in 2006, after marrying Claire and signing for his boyhood idols Liverpool in a ÂŁ6million deal, that maturity and marriage had made him a changed man.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/craig-bellamy-says-gary-speeds-1314258Sad to hear this. Hope everything works out for Bellers.