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Former Manchester United and Wales star Ryan Giggs threw his then-girlfriend out of a hotel room while she was naked, a court has heard.
Mr Giggs, 48, is on trial accused of controlling behaviour and assaulting his former girlfriend Kate Greville and her younger sister Emma.
In an interview heard by the jury, Ms Greville, 36, told detectives Mr Giggs was her “best friend and her soulmate” but he became “abusive and nasty”.
Mr Giggs has denied all the charges.
He is charged with controlling and coercive behaviour against Kate Greville between August 2017 and November 2020.
He is also charged with assaulting Kate Greville, causing her actual bodily harm, and common assault of Emma Greville at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, on 1 November 2020.
Manchester Crown Court heard a police interview given by Ms Greville weeks after she alleged the former Wales manager headbutted her in November 2020.
Prosecutors allege this happened when Mr Giggs came back to his house as she was preparing to move out.
Explaining her decision to end the relationship, she said: “I needed to do something for me. I had everything taken away from me. I needed to take a bit of control.”
She said she was going to “disappear” from his life and had written him a letter, but events took over and it was not sent.
A tearful Ms Greville told police, “The whole life was a lie.”
She told detectives Mr Giggs had once “flipped” in a hotel room after she confronted him about messaging another woman.
She said he squared up to her, grabbed her wrist “hard” and “literally dragged” her naked across the floor and threw her and her belongings into the corridor.
Ms Greville added that she was left feeling “humiliated and embarrassed.”
She told detectives that months before the alleged assault in November 2020, she found evidence that Mr Giggs had had relationships with eight other women over the previous six years.
Giving evidence to the court from behind a screen – visible only to the jury and legal representatives – Ms Greville described an incident in February 2020 that left her with bruises on her wrists and her knee.
She said while on a trip to Dubai, after the pair has been out for a few drinks, Mr Giggs accused her of being drunk on the way back to the hotel.
“I went quiet. I felt constantly attacked by him, I didn’t know where it had come from,” she said.
“He said I was just like his ex-wife and he called me her name. It wasn’t the first time. It was like his ultimate insult.
“He knew it would upset me. He would say it quite a lot. He used to say she would make his life hell, she had a problem with alcohol and I was just like her.”
She went on to describe how he asked her to leave and make her own way to the airport the next day.
However, she said as she tried to go, he stood in her way and grabbed and pulled her bag, causing her to fall and bruise her arm and knees.
In her police interview Ms Greville said that she saw early “red flags” in the relationship and it was “almost like he was two people.”
She told detectives both she and Mr Giggs were married when their affair started and she was in an unhappy and controlling marriage.
“He would tell me about his marriage and he was not happy, I would talk about mine,” she said.
She said things “developed” from that point on and she left her husband two months later.
“He was like a best friend, a soulmate, he was the one to save me from that marriage,” she added.
During their affair, she said Mr Giggs kept promising he would leave his wife after she had ended her own marriage, but it did not happen.
At one point she stopped speaking to him and ignored his messages and calls, she said.
Ms Greville told police that Mr Giggs turned up at her apartment but she ignored him, prompting him to shout, “You are a whore. Have you got somebody in there?”
He went on to threaten her that he would tell her boss about their secret affair, she said.
Rumours began at Ms Greville’s workplace about the pair but she lied about it because she was “ashamed I was seeing a married man.”
Mr Giggs would message her saying the marriage was over but again she discovered it was not, she said.
“It was just complete mind games. That went on for ages,” she added.
The affair became public in May 2016, the court heard, which she said was “horrendous” as she was “hounded by the paps (paparazzi, or photographers).”
It continued to be an on-off relationship, despite her blocking him at times on her phone and emails, the court heard.
“It was literally like I was addicted to him. I couldn’t get him out of my head,” she said.
As their relationship went on, she said he would tell her he had left his then-wife and had moved in with his mother.
“Then I found out he had not. That went on for about nine months and then I decided he is not going to split up with (his then-wife), that is not happening,” she said.
Eventually, Ms Greville said she gave him an ultimatum but nothing changed and she decided to move to Abu Dhabi to “get away from him.”
Mr Giggs stood down in June as manager of the Wales national team following a period of leave since November 2020.
During his time at Old Trafford, Manchester United won 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League trophies, four FA Cups and three League Cups.
He won 64 caps for Wales and is co-owner of League Two side Salford City.
The trial continues.
