Sol gossip 'came from Spurs'

Kelly Hoppen has defended her former lover Sol Campbell against persistent speculation about his sexuality.

Speaking for the first time about her doomed romance, Hoppen said: "All that gay rubbish came from Tottenham. He's the most un-gay person I know."

Hoppen,44, who dated the England and Arsenal defender for almost a year, said they enjoyed quiet evenings watching the Weather Channel on TV and confesses: " I was madly in love."

But the interior designer says 31-year-old Campbell ended their romance out of the blue.

A week before he and his teammates embark on the World Cup, Hoppen, 44, tells Tatler magazine: "One day everything was fine, the next it wasn't. I couldn't cope with that. He turned round to me and said it was over. He said I was the only woman he'd been with for that long."

Divorcee Hoppen, who is step-mother to Sienna Miller, met Campbell at the wedding of fellow footballer John Scales.

"He asked to sit next to me... we danced all night. I thought he was goodlooking - I was fascinated by him. He was gentle, kind and funny."

Hoppen says that when news of the relationship first broke: "It said ' Millionairess Kelly Hoppen finds toyboy'. Mum nearly choked.

"There were pictures of me coming out of my flat that I didn't know had been taken... It p***ed me off that they couldn't understand why we were together. Why couldn't a footballer be with a posh girl?

" He'd spend hours watching me design at home and we had this thing with the Weather Channel. We'd be glued to it for hours. We took a boat together around Capri and invited family and friends." Despite Campbell's £100,000-aweek salary, Hoppen reveals: "He wasn't the sort to organise presents and surprises."

She says she enjoyed being part of the football glitterati, once accompanying the England team to Sardinia.

"I didn't know what clothes to take," she says. "Nancy dell'Olio was so nice to me; we're still friends. And the Beckhams were the most lovely, normal people, terribly misrepresented, great parents. I love Coleen too. I love football."

Campbell incurred the wrath of Tottenham fans when he left the club in 2001 after nearly a decade to join arch north London rivals Arsenal.