Nicola Sturgeon reveals her sexuality ‘isn't binary' in bombshell new book
The ex-First Minister addressed the subject of her private life in the new memoir Frankly - set to be released next week.
3
3
An extract from her upcoming book has been released this evening.
In it, the former SNP leader addresses head-on speculation surrounding her sexuality and a previous rumour that she had a secret relationship with a French diplomat.
Ms Sturgeon says that her sexual orientation is not binary.
As reported by The Times, she writes: "For many of those peddling it, 'lesbian' and 'gay' are meant as insults. However, while the fact I was being lied about got under my skin, the nature of the insult itself was water off a duck's back.
"Long-term relationships with men have accounted for more than thirty years of my life, but I have never considered sexuality, my own included, to be binary. Moreover, sexual relationships should be private matters."
Ms Sturgeon revealed that in early 2020, there was "an issue gnawing in the background", relating to her sexuality.
She writes: "I was starting to get under my skin. For some time, social media had been awash with 'rumours' that I was having a secret relationship with a woman.
"There were slightly different versions of the story, but the consistent theme seemed to be that I was having a torrid lesbian affair with the woman who was at that time the French ambassador to the UK, and who would later become the French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna.
"In one of the variants of the story, there had been a violent encounter between us, involving an iron, in Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel. We had also supposedly set up a love nest, in a house in Bridge of Allan, that I had bought from Andy Murray's mum, Judy.
"Normally, I wouldn't have known nor cared about wild stories from the darker recesses of social media, and, if this one had stayed there, it would have been easy to ignore. But by late 2019 it was being openly talked about.
"My family and friends were being asked about it by people who'd heard it in their local pub. Colleagues were being asked about it on doorsteps.
"One of our neighbours in Glasgow mentioned it, obliquely, to Peter, presumably thinking he had a right to know that his wife was having an affair.
"It reached a head in February 2020, when the social media site Guido Fawkes tweeted to the effect that a salacious story about my private life was only still secret because I had a superinjunction in place to stop it being reported.
"I was furious. It was a blatant lie.
"Not only was there no superinjunction in place, but such a legal remedy isn't even available in Scots law.
"Shortly after, the all-consuming focus on Covid put a stop to the rumour, but only for a while. It would resurface a few months later.
"I had little option but to shrug it off, however irritating it might have been.
"Catherine, the French ambassador, helped. She was aware of the rumours too and, the first time I saw her after lockdown, at a meeting of EU ambassadors in the Scottish government's London office, we laughed about it.
"We were photographed together a couple of times after that, at COP27 in Egypt, for example, and the online frenzy which ensued suggested that we had successfully trolled the trolls.
"Although the French ambassador and I could laugh about it, a saga like this does throw up serious issues. How do fake stories like this take root in social media?
"Did some Russian bot factory concoct a made-up story? Who knows? Then, of course, there is the blatant homophobia at the heart of the 'story'."
Salacious rumours have circulated for the past decade about Ms Sturgeon's private life and sexuality.
NICOLA & PETER: TIMELINE
1988: Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell first meet at an SNP youth event.
2003: Then-Glasgow list MSP Ms Sturgeon and SNP chief executive Mr Murrell begin their relationship.
July 16, 2010: The couple tie the knot with a ceremony at the Oran Mor in Glasgow's west end.
April 2, 2023: Ms Sturgeon claims online rumours and the need to seek more privacy was 'part of the reason' for her resignation as First Minister.
April 5, 2023: The home of the couple, near Glasgow, is searched by police, with a separate raid on the SNP's Edinburgh HQ, as part of their investigation into the party's finances. Peter Murrell is arrested and quizzed by cops for 12 hours before being released without charge.
April 8, 2023: A £110,000 luxury motorhome is seized by cops from outside the home of Mr Murrell's mother.
April 28, 2023: Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell are spotted for the first time since the raid on their Uddingston home. She dismisses rumours around her sexuality, including one that she had an affair with a female French diplomat.
June 11, 2023: Police Scotland officers arrest Ms Sturgeon and take her for questioning as part of their probe into SNP finances. She is released without charge and insists that she is innocent of any wrongdoing.
August 10, 2023: At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Ms Sturgeon rubbishes claims her marriage is in trouble, telling an audience: 'My marriage is not something anyone should worry about'.
October 1, 2023: During a podcast, Ms Sturgeon insists her marriage is not on the rocks. She says: 'We are still married and will be married for a long time to come'.
April 18, 2024: Mr Murrell is re-arrested by cops and is charged with embezzlement in connection with the investigation into SNP finances.
April 26, 2024: Ms Sturgeon spotted at the annual Diva Awards with pal Val McDermid in London without her wedding ring.
December 2024: Ms Sturgeon says she is in the dark about the ongoing police investigation, adding: "I am just getting on with my life as best I can at the moment."
January 11, 2025: During an interview with the Financial Times, Ms Sturgeon says politics was 'all-consuming for a long, long time', having been married to Mr Murrell for over a decade.
January 13, 2025: In a social media post, Nicola Sturgeon announces the end of her marriage to Peter Murrell and says they have been separated for 'some time'
Around 2016, word began to spread on social media and in powerful circles that she had moved into a house with a female lover, but these were repeatedly dismissed by aides as baseless conspiracy theories, and there was no evidence to support them.
In an interview in 2020 with the Sunday Times, Ms Sturgeon was asked about a 'caravan of rumours' about her private life and said: 'This sort of exotic double life that I'm supposedly leading is a damn sight more interesting than the actual life I'm leading.
'It does not have a scintilla of truth or basis in reality. It is just so completely off the wall.'
Ms Sturgeon ultimately denied she was having an affair with a female French diplomat - one of the best-known claims - in an interview with the BBC in April 2023 after she stood down as First Minister.
At the time, BBC Scotland's political editor, Glenn Campbell, put it to Ms Sturgeon that people were speculating about her marriage and sexuality on social media.
She replied: "I read accounts of my life on social media and I think, 'you know, it is so much more glamorous sounding and so much more exciting'. You know I've got houses everywhere if you believe social media."
The Beeb man then asked her: "Which French diplomat are you having an affair with?"
Ms Sturgeon laughed and said: "I'll tell you off camera which one it is supposed to be but whichever one it is we've actually had a laugh about it."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
40 minutes ago
- The Independent
Rachel Reeves to take aim at environmental protections in bid to speed up infrastructure projects, say reports
Rachel Reeves is preparing to strip back environmental protections in an attempt to accelerate infrastructure building and boost the economy, according to reports. The chancellor is considering major reforms that would make it more difficult for wildlife concerns to hold up developments, according to The Times. Treasury officials are said to be drafting another planning reform bill, the publication reported. The move reportedly involves tearing up parts of European environmental rules, which developers have argued slow down crucial projects. While Labour ministers have previously insisted their current planning overhaul would balance growth with nature, Ms Reeves is understood to believe that the government must go further. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill going through Parliament overrides existing habitat and nature protections, which, if passed, would allow developers to make general environmental improvements and pay into a nature restoration fund that improves habitats on other sites. But Ms Reeves is considering more contentious reforms that are likely to trigger further backlash from environmental groups, according to The Times. Among the changes under discussion are plans for a smaller, UK-only list of protected species, which would give less weight to wildlife considered rare across Europe but relatively common in Britain, The Times said. Ms Reeves is also reportedly considering abolishing the EU 'precautionary principle' that forces developers to prove projects will have no impact on protected natural sites. Instead, a new test would assess the risks and benefits of building. The chancellor is also exploring limits on legal challenges from environmental campaigners. Speaking to the House of Lords economic affairs committee last month, Ms Reeves said: 'The reason that HS2 is not coming to my city of Leeds anymore anytime soon, is because I'm afraid, as a country, we've cared more about the bats than we have about the commuter times for people in Leeds and West Yorkshire, and we've got to change that, 'Because I care more about a young family getting on the housing ladder than I do about protecting some snails, and I care more about my energy bills and my constituents than I do about the views of people from their windows.' High-profile examples of costly protections include the £100m Buckinghamshire 'bat tunnel' built to protect wildlife from HS2 trains and the so-called 'fish disco' at Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, which uses sound to deter fish from cooling system intakes. The existing Planning and Infrastructure Bill already proposes a 'nature restoration fund' under which developers could offset environmental damage by paying for conservation schemes elsewhere. But the bill has faced criticism from both environmental groups and developers, who fear it will fail to speed up construction. Paul Miner of the countryside charity CPRE told The Times that targeting habitats regulations would 'take us backwards rather than forwards on nature recovery'.
Daily Mail
41 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Anger as SNP spend £520m on dualling 11 miles of killer A9
Dualling just 11 miles of Scotland's most dangerous road has so far cost taxpayers more than half a billion pounds, it has emerged. And work on the next six-mile stretch of the A9 is expected to cost at least £300million – pushing the combined bill to more than £800million by spring 2027. The SNP vowed in 2011 to upgrade 88 miles of single carriageway between Perth and Inverness by this year. But ministers failed to fund the commitment and finally admitted two years ago that the timetable had become 'unachievable' – pushing back the completion date to 2035. Only two of the 11 sections have been fully dualled so far – the five miles from Kincraig to Dalraddy, near Aviemore, and six miles from Luncarty to Pass of Birnam, north of Perth. The next section set to be completed, the six miles from Tomatin to Moy, outside Inverness, was recently delayed from 2027 to 2028. Construction has yet to start on the other eight stretches, with the final cost forecast to be around £3.7billion. Figures released to the Tories under freedom of information show the SNP spent £520million on dualling the road between 2012 and June this year. This includes design, land acquisition, demolition and preparatory works, procurement of contractors and the cost of the construction works themselves. Another £300million of spending is planned by April 2027, taking the total to £820million for the completion of 17 miles. Scottish Tory transport spokesman Sue Webber called for emergency legislation to cut bureaucracy and 'get the job done'. 'The SNP's ongoing failure to dual the A9 is Scotland's national shame,' she said. 'They've managed to squander £800million of taxpayers' money and still not even a third of the A9 is dualled. 'As costs soar and progress stalls, more and more lives are being lost on the A9. Unlike the SNP, we would make dualling the A9 a top priority.' Despite being the key transport artery to the Highlands, the A9 has long been a notorious accident blackspot, with many fatalities where the route switches between single and dual carriageway. There have been 320 'injury collisions' on the road in the last four years, including 135 classed as serious and 28 fatalities. The deadliest recent year was 2022-23, when 13 people were killed, followed by 2024-25, when there were seven fatalities. Among the recent casualties was mother-of-two Ashleigh Watson, 31, who was pronounced dead at the scene after a single-vehicle crash just before Christmas last year near Inshes, Inverness. A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'The A9 is an essential route in Scotland. It must be safe, reliable and resilient, and that is what this Government will deliver.'
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Rachel Reeves to cut ‘bats and newts' in boost to developers
Rachel Reeves is preparing to strip back environmental protections in an effort to boost the economy by speeding up infrastructure projects. The chancellor is considering reforms that would make it far harder for concerns about nature to stop development, which she insists is crucial to restoring growth and improving living standards. The Treasury has begun preparing for another planning reform bill and is thinking about tearing up key parts of European environmental rules that developers say are making it harder to build key projects. Labour ministers have repeatedly insisted that their current planning overhaul will not come at the expense of nature, promising a 'win-win' system where developers will pay to offset environmental damage. But Reeves is understood to believe that the government must go significantly further, after expressing frustration that the interests of 'bats and newts' are being allowed to stymie critical infrastructure. She has tasked officials with looking at much more contentious reforms, which are likely to provoke a furious backlash from environmentalists and cause unease for some Labour MPs. A smaller, UK-only list of protected species is being planned, which would place less weight on wildlife — including types of newt — that is rare elsewhere in Europe but more common in Britain. Developers would also no longer have to prove that projects would have no impact on protected natural sites, under plans that would abolish the 'precautionary principle' enshrined in European rules. Instead, a new test would look at risks and benefits of potential projects. Further curbs to judicial review are also being considered by Reeves to stop key projects being delayed by legal challenges from environmentalists. No decisions have been made, but work is underway and Treasury sources acknowledged there was a growing belief that the government needed to go further, as Reeves says she wants to make boosting Britain's sluggish productivity the centrepiece of her autumn budget. She argued this week that building more infrastructure such as roads and railways were crucial to this aim. A Planning and Infrastructure Bill currently going through parliament attempts to encourage development through a 'nature restoration fund' through which developers will be allowed to press ahead with projects by setting up schemes elsewhere to offset their environmental impact. • The grid is struggling — and our green future hangs in the balance But the plan has been criticised by environmental groups while also attracting scepticism from some developers, who fear it will not work in practice and do little to speed up building. Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, who stood down as energy minister in May, is urging his former colleagues to go further to achieve Labour's promise of 150 major infrastructure projects. 'While I think the planning bill will work for housing, I don't think it is sufficiently focused on the major infrastructure projects, so it is encouraging that the Treasury is going to have another look at whether we've really got this right,' he said. 'The government has to face up to the tensions in the Habitat Regulations which are making it hard to build essential infrastructure and the reality is that at some point someone needs to make a hard decision and say 'on some things, you just have to press ahead'.' The rules, which incorporate the EU Habitats Directive into British law, ban killing of hundreds of species, including types of bats, news, voles, snails, spiders, insects and woodlice. Developers must prove there is no risk to protected sites and species before being allowed to go ahead with projects, under rules which critics say impose an 'impossibly high standard' on vital projects. Reeves is increasingly sympathetic to such criticism, after repeatedly hitting out at 'ridiculous' environmental protections. She said last month that she cared 'more about the young family getting on the housing ladder than I do about protecting some snails', after a speech in January in which she said developers should be able to 'focus on getting things built, and stop worrying about bats and newts'. Sir Keir Starmer has also expressed frustration with the ability of campaigners to delay projects through legal challenges, and is already introducing rules which limit judicial review to override the 'whims of nimbys'. Campaign groups and residents, who currently have three opportunities to apply for judicial review, which will be reduced to two, or one in cases deemed by a judge 'totally without merit'. Reeves is now considering allowing only one opportunity to bring any challenge. Some Labour MPs and peers want her to go further by using dedicated acts of parliament to prevent any legal challenge to specific named projects. The plans are at an early stage and are likely to cause tension with ministers in other departments who have pledged to protect the environment. Paul Miner, of the countryside charity CPRE, said targeting habitats regulations would 'take us backwards rather than forwards on nature recovery', adding: 'We urge the government to drop the worn-out 'builders versus blockers' narrative which wrongly frames climate and nature as being in conflict with economic growth.' Becky Pullinger, of the Wildlife Trusts, said maintaining environmental standards was 'essential if we are to achieve targets to protect and restore the natural world which is suffering huge declines, saying Reeves should abandon 'the myth that deregulation will lead to economic growth'. But Robbie Owen, head of infrastructure planning at Pinsent Masons, said: 'Ministers are finally realising that their rhetoric about reform doesn't match up up the reality of their bill. We have been saying to ministers and officials all year that the bill needs to go further and it seems that message has finally been heard.'
