Former Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs has told a jury about the “rough” sex life he enjoyed with the partner who has accused him of “head-butting” her during a row at home.
Giggs also described “trying to push” ex-girlfriend Kate Greville at the Stafford Hotel in London in 2019 during a row, after claiming she had been “holding hands” with a sports presenter on a nightclub dancefloor earlier that night.
The 48-year-old, wearing a grey suit on his second day giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court, told jurors there was another drunken argument in Dubai in 2020, after he called Ms Greville by his ex-wife Stacey’s name, in a “slip of the tongue”.
I want you so badly. Rough xx— Kate Greville in a text to Ryan Giggs
Giggs is on trial accused of assaulting 38-year-old Ms Greville and her younger sister, Emma Greville, 26, at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, on November 1 2020.
He is also accused of using controlling and coercive behaviour against his ex.
Giggs’ QC, Chris Daw, asked the former United winger if he had put pressure on Ms Greville to have sex, with the footballer replying it “was always mutual”.
Mr Daw went through a series of messages between Giggs and Ms Greville in 2017.
One, from Ms Greville to Giggs, said: “I want you so badly. Rough xx.”
Giggs replied: “Do you? I’m scared of hurting you.”
Ms Greville said: “I want it to hurt a little, not in a weird way, I just want you to shock and surprise me.”
In response to a message from Giggs that it was “a fine line”, Ms Greville then said: “We’ll just have to have fun finding that line then.”
Asked whether the couple had an equal interest in rough sex, Giggs replied: “From this exchange it looks like Kate, but throughout the relationship it was just mutual.”
Mr Daw then asked about a picture Giggs sent Ms Greville with the message “Bully”, showing a scratch on his neck that Giggs said was from when they had sex.
Ms Greville replied: “Oops, sorry baby. I have a bruise on my arm but you can’t see it because I’m so brown.”
Asked about the nature of his sex life with Ms Greville during this time, Giggs said: “The nature was the same as it had always been – a healthy sex life and sometimes it could get rough.”
I couldn’t believe it. I said to my agent ‘I’m going’ and got a taxi and went back to the hotel— Ryan Giggs
Ms Greville has claimed that, in December 2019, Giggs threw a bag containing a laptop at her head, kicked her out of bed and ejected her naked into a hotel corridor.
Asked about the alleged incident at the Stafford Hotel, Giggs said the couple had been in the capital for his agent’s Christmas party, including a mini-golf tournament, a trip to Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland and a nightclub visit.
During the golf event, Giggs was paired with a female sports presenter, whom he described in court as “an attractive lady”.
He claimed Ms Greville later accused him of flirting with the woman, though he denied the accusation.
While in a Bavarian beer garden tent in Hyde Park, he claimed Ms Greville told him: “You kept looking at her, I was watching you, you were definitely flirting.”
Giggs told the jury: “I was slightly embarrassed we were arguing. I left on my own.
“I walked to the club where we going next. It was a long walk.”
While in a nightclub booth facing the dancefloor, he said: “I was sat down and had a clear view of Kate and one of the male sports presenters who was present.
“They were dancing together, holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes.
“I couldn’t believe it. I said to my agent ‘I’m going’ and got a taxi and went back to the hotel.”
He denied there was any confrontation in the club, but once Ms Greville arrived back at the hotel an “hour or so” after Giggs a row began over her contact with the male presenter.
Giggs said: “Kate was then trying to get into bed and I said ‘I’m not sleeping with you tonight’.
“There was a suite in the room and I said ‘You can sleep in the area where there is a couch’.”
I was trying to push her into the lounge area— Ryan Giggs
He said he threw a Louis Vuitton holdall in the direction of the bed.
Giggs added: “Kate was still trying to get into bed.
“I was trying to push her into the lounge area.
“Then quite quickly the argument fizzled out and we both spent the night together.”
Asked if he did “anything physical towards her that night”, Giggs replied: “No, I did not.”
“We were both quite drunk and fell asleep.”
Jurors heard that the couple broke up for several weeks around Christmas that year, but reconciled and holidayed in Dubai in February 2020.
Giggs described how the “nice holiday” was marred on the penultimate day, when – while “both quite drunk” – he called her by his ex-wife’s name.
He said: “She (Kate) took it as a derogatory remark but I didn’t mean it like that – it was just a slip of the tongue.”
Giggs flew home alone, “devastated”, while Ms Greville stayed with friends.
Ms Greville has claimed that during that argument Giggs grabbed her bag and pulled it on her arm “really hard”, causing her to fall.
During lockdown, Ms Greville moved into Giggs’ house, and previously described to a jury how it was “hell”.
Everyone, can you please put the tablespoons the right way round— Ryan Giggs, during the dishwasher 'team meeting'
But Giggs said: “It was a really happy time from my perspective”, adding that they would “bicker” but had “no big arguments”.
He described calling “a team meeting” about how the home’s dishwasher was being loaded, in which he told those present: “Everyone, can you please put the tablespoons the right way round.”
In June 2020, Ms Greville moved out, with Giggs saying there was “no excuse whatsoever” for his choice of language in an email he sent to her, with the subject “C***!!!”.
Giggs also claimed he was “very supportive” to Ms Greville in setting up her own PR business, and there was “no truth” to allegations to the contrary.
He denied ever preventing her having her own home, having control over her money and trying to control her relationships with friends and family.
Giggs denies wrongdoing and the trial continues.
