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Myleene Klass has been accused of ‘ghosting’ one of her closest friends after he was forced to contact her former husband – just days after their abrupt separation.
The Loose Women presenter exchanged vows with Graham Quinn in 2011, almost a decade after meeting the Irish businessman when he provided security for Hear’Say, her former band, in the early 2000s.
But just six months after exchanging vows in an intimate wedding ceremony – attended by a select sixteen family members – Quinn walked out on his wife and their two children.
The fallout would be bitter, and former journalist Dean Piper believes the sudden, unexpected collapse of Myleene’s first marriage ultimately led to their estrangement, after previously enjoying a close friendship.
Piper originally met the presenter in 2001, shortly after she entered the music industry as a member of Hear’Say – the ultimately doomed five-piece group formed by Nigel Lythgoe on ITV show Popstars.
‘We would try and get together as often as physically possible for a catch up and it would always involve naughty food or a shopping trip,’ he recalls in a lengthy opening post for his new blog, WTF.
‘A glazed donut at a cafe off Leicester Square, a cosy meal at the Ivy Club or a coffee in Starbucks. And then obviously at big events like the National TV Awards, the Brits and the odd product launch we would be inseparable.’
So close were the pair that Myleene – affectionately referred to as ‘Leenie’ by Piper – even reached out following the death of his father, with the presenter sending ‘dresses from her M+S collection for my mum – which was extremely kind’.
By extension, Piper – at the time a mainstream showbusiness editor with a national paper – was also associated with the ‘tall, handsome’ Quinn.
‘The pair seemed like a great couple back then, but they always had a fairly unique approach to their relationship,’ he wrote.
‘Graham, or Gray as we all called him, was away for months at a time with his work as a co-owner of a celebrity security firm. But it didn’t seem to faze either of them – in fact it only seemed to keep them stronger.
‘Myleene was always so busy anyway with her numerous work ventures so it didn’t make any difference if Gray was home – he wouldn’t have seen her anyway!’
But he admits seeing a different side to Myleene as her marriage dissolved, with the presenter relying on him to produce a story filled with unsubstantiated claims that Quinn had cheated on her with an X Factor tour dancer.
‘Two separate sources were then telling me that the pair were often hanging out and had built quite a friendship throughout their days on tour around the UK,’ recalled Piper of his efforts to stand the story up.
‘But it wasn’t enough for me to pin down Gray as having had an affair. In the eyes of the law male and females are able to have purely platonic friendships without being involved in a relationship – and they would just deny it meaning the story would not have worked.’
In the end, Piper reluctantly contacted Quinn for right of reply after being told his story was too one-sided – a decision that he believes ended his friendship with Myleene.
‘The day the newspaper came out I received a call from her agent Severine: “You f**king bastard. How could you do that to Myleene? Terrible.'”‘ he recalled of the reaction to his story, which included exclusive quotes from Quinn.
‘I sent a load of texts to Myleene obviously and tried calling but there wasn’t a reply or an answer. I didn’t hear a single word from her ever again.
‘Still to this day haven’t. I could never imagine not being mates with her after all those years being buddies on the showbiz beat.’
Piper later attempted to make peace with Myleene in a lengthy email – but received no response.
‘I’d been ghosted. And that’s no fun for anybody to go through. Especially with a proper friend.’
He added: ‘I remember seeing her with the girls backstage at a buffet counter at Hyde Park. calling and she wouldn’t even look me in the eye despite me being fifteen feet away from her.
‘I saw her just this past Christmas and yet again she wouldn’t look me in the eye and we were at a small birthday party for a mutual friend.
‘It was impossible to escape her in the room.’
The radio presenter hit the headlines after accusing her former husband of cheating on her with another celebrity, who she has refused to name, shortly before their 2011 wedding.
Quinn’s inner circle have hit back at the shock claims and told Daily Mail’s Grant Tucker that the former Hear’Say bodyguard, who shares daughters Ava, 17, and Hero, 13, with Myleene was ‘not going to dignify these fantasies with a response’.
They also believe it was ‘vindictive and calculated’ of the singer to launch the bombshell on what she would have known was the week of Quinn’s 51st birthday.
After opening up about the scandal in an interview for Paul Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast, Myleene took to Instagram Stories to state she has ‘receipts,’ and ‘won’t keep her mouth shut.’
The post also included a snap of her MBE, after receiving the honour for her services to women’s health, miscarriage awareness and charity last month.
While Myleene used the post to reflect on her recent achievements, she also declared she’s ‘finally found her voice’ after opening up about her cheating ordeal.
She wrote: ‘Wow. What a week it’s been! Firstly, thank you. I have quite literally tens of thousands of messages of love and support for me and my family. I took a long time to learn there’s strength in vulnerability.
‘In a varied week where my interview with @paulcbrunson and @needtotalk went viral and reached the people who needed to hear it, where I was part of the incredible @stjohn_ambulance team who helped to save a person’s life and where my children and I somehow managed to rescue our passports from the bottom of the Adriatic, it’s been a mixed bag!
‘All this to say, at 47, I’ve finally found my voice and it’s clear, unapologetic and brutally honest.
‘To those that fear its truth, you probably have reason to, I have receipts, to those that need to hear it, I’ve got you and I fully intend to continue using it to change the laws and legislation that neglect women and children in this country and around the world.’
Myleene then ended her post with a Bible quote, that said: ‘And the truth will set you free’ John 8.32,’ before adding her own words: ‘And then some.’
The presenter started started dating Quinn in 2001 and they were together for 12 years until they separated in 2011.
Appearing on Paul C. Brunson’s podcast, she said: ‘I walked in on him with a famous person on my birthday on a balcony.’
According to the presenter, the pair tried to claim that it wasn’t what it looked like and she continued: ‘I’m in my house, it’s my party. They weren’t having sex, but they were unzipping each other.
‘It’s not what you think’. But I’m like, ‘It is what I think’.
‘It’s the first thing they both said. I kicked everyone out of the party, including his mum and dad. They went back to Ireland and his dad said: ‘He doesn’t get it from me’.
‘I remember thinking that was quite a weird thing to say,’ she told the love expert.
Turning her thoughts towards the other woman, Myleene said: ‘I’ve made peace with that situation now, but for a long time, it was very difficult to see their life.
‘My life literally just broke apart very, very publicly and their life, they’ve managed to continue building a family brand on it. I have to take some accountability
‘Look, you know, first and foremost to my children. My children have asked enough questions and it’s never been a case of laying out my stall now.
‘It’s got to be as and when. But here’s the funny thing – school mums, people who just want to gossip, will go to your children before anybody else.’
