Richard Keys denied leaving cancer-stricken wife for daughter's friend - who he's now wed

Richard Keys denied leaving his cancer-stricken wife for his daughter's friend - with whom he has just tied the knot.

The ex-Sky Sports presenter, 66, was pictured exchanging vows with Lucie Rose, 34, at a sunny outdoor ceremony in Devon over the weekend.

It was alleged their relationship began when Lucie was introduced to the family by daughter Jemma while Keys' wife of 36 years, Julia, was battling thyroid cancer. Julia would later accuse Lucie of leaving her family "devastated", while ex-Hollyoaks actress Jemma sent her former friend a text calling her "the filthiest sl** I can ever think of" after what she said was an "awful betrayal".

Keys insisted in 2019 that he hadn't acted inappropriately. "Did I leave my wife fighting cancer? No. I don’t know what happened," he told The Athletic. "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."

The broadcaster claimed he took his wife to London "every day of her fight".

"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," Keys added.

"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. I didn't fall in love with a friend of my daughter's."

Keys, pictured with his ex-wife Julia (R) and their daughter Jemma (L) (Image: ALPHA)

However, in April 2018, Julia discussed her husband's affair in her book 'The MANScript'. She wrote: "Richard's affair didn't just devastate my world, but the world of our children Jemma and Josh too.

"It is only now, two years on, that he has admitted he did have an affair with Lucie, as well as acknowledging his deceit and the damage it has caused."

Richard Keys married Lucie Rose in a ceremony in Devon over the weekend

Keys himself contributed to the book, seemingly expressing regret over having the affair by penning: "If you really love your wife but are tempted to get a bit of excitement elsewhere you have to be prepared to lose the one you really love - it just isn’t worth it."

Keys, who lives and works in Qatar as beIN SPORTS' lead football presenter, left Sky Sports in controversial fashion in 2011 after he and colleague Andy Gray were caught making derogatory comments about lines woman Sian Massey.

The comments were made off-air, but were recorded by idle microphones in the studio and subsequently leaked. Keys later apologised for the "prehistoric banter", but defended himself by claiming: "If off-air conversations of television and radio presenters were recorded, there would be no one left working."