RICHARD KEYS has been described as “my adult toddler” by his wife who is 31 years younger.
Keys, 68, married lawyer Lucie Rose in 2023.
The wedding was shrouded in controversy amid suggestions the TV presenter had run off with his daughter’s best friend while Julia, his first wife of 34 years, had cancer.
Keys, who is younger than his father-in-law, rubbished those claims of being a love rat as “nonsense” in an interview with The Telegraph – insisting the relationship between Lucie and his daughter Jemma was misrepresented.
Lucie had socialised with Jemma in Doha and Keys Jr was understood to be seething when she found out about the pair getting together.
That, alongside Keys’ controversial and disparaging comments about women plus the huge age gap, meant eyebrows were certainly raised.
And now his high-flying new woman has given her version of events – with a cheeky dig at her veteran husband and laughing off labels such as “trophy wife” or “gold digger”.
When Keys says he had “never” felt the age difference, Lucie quipped: “That’s because you’re my adult toddler.”
She added: “For me, the most important thing is people’s ability to change and evolve.
“If I had met someone who was trying to justify that culture, there wouldn’t have been anywhere for us to go.
CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS
“But that wasn’t the person I met.
“I met someone who was traumatised, to an extent, by the culture he lived through.
“Except somehow he is marked as being the cause of it. I don’t think that’s fair – it’s not who he is.”
Keys lived in Qatar for 13 years since his acrimonious exit from Sky Sports after sexist off-air comments.
But he is now leaving beIN Sports and returning back to London after ten years of long distance with Lucie, a partner in private funds at a top New York law firm.
In 2016, Julia filed for divorce, after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, on the grounds of Keys’ alleged affair with Lucie.
The psychotherapist then wrote an infidelity survival guide and said Keys’ behaviour “didn’t just devastate my world, but the world of our children Jemma and Josh, too”.
Keys and Lucie met when the lawyer was working for the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund.
But it was a bizarre reason as he was feeling unwell after accidentally taking double the dosage of his blood pressure medication.
Keys explained: “I was sitting in a bar in Qatar, where Andy and I were hosting a golf event, and the whole world was moving around me.
“Enjoyably high and drunk at the same time: it must be what MDMA is like, not that I would know.
“At that point Lucie came and sat down beside me. It was typical of her to think, ‘Oh, there’s someone in distress – he doesn’t look well, let me go and talk to him.’
“That’s really where we started.
“I knew I wanted to be with Lucie, but I couldn’t emotionally get there. It took me forever to change course.
“It was only the result of Lucie’s patience, and my sister Susan’s belief that she has always known what’s right for me.
“So, it wasn’t an overnight thing at all. The hurt is something you don’t want to inflate.
“I never expected my marriage would end after 34 years, but Lucie bowled into my life and, wow, what a force of nature. And the rest is history.”
