Two sides to every story. As well as the player running around with his top off running

towards our fans. The memories

Cheating pounds 6,500 a week soccer rat dumped me and our 3 kids to score with young lover.. & left us skint; FOOTBALLER'S EX WIFE LIFTS LID ON ROMPS AT DELIA'S CLUB EXCLUSIVE 'HUGE SOCCER WAGES CHANGED MAN I WED'

THE heartbroken ex-wife of soccer star Leon McKenzie has told how he tore their family apart to set up home with his Spanish mistress.

Furious Vanessa McKenzie, 32, has revealed how her Footballers' Wives-style dream life became a nightmare after the Norwich City striker cheated on her THREE times during their stormy six-year marriage. And she told how Leon finally deserted her and their three children for Spanish-born Sofia Sharp, 23, just weeks after TV chef Delia Smith's Canaries were relegated from the Premiership.

She blasted: "He's been a total rat, and has left us struggling financially. I'm sick of everyone thinking he's a local hero when he is not. He is a complete and utter bastard."

Vanessa, a property developer, told how she exploded with rage in August after discovering love rat Leon had a mistress and he had taken her on a luxury holiday to Miami.

He had told Vanessa he was in Las Vegas with his team-mates.

Leon, 28, left Vanessa at home to look after their children - who are Kasey, eight, Mariya, two, and her son Jordan, 13, from a previous relationship.

But she quickly realised he had lied - and was furious to discover he'd spent thousands of pounds on the luxury break. Sofia, who worked in London for a Spanish holiday firm, met Leon through friends on a night out.

Vanessa said: "When Norwich were promoted, Leon was earning pounds 6,500 a week and that changed him. He was supposed to be on holiday in Vegas with the lads in May and gave me a number where he could be reached, but it was always out of service.

"I later found out he had been in Miami with Sofia. I was utterly heartbroken and very, very angry.

"I was so mad I smashed up his Mercedes with a hockey stick.

"I couldn't believe it. I was home with three children - he was gallivanting around Miami with a 23-year-old.

"He was spending a disgusting amount of money on her for hotels, clothes and meals out. He spent more than pounds 25,000 between May and July."

Despite spoiling his mistress, Vanessa says Leon no longer wants to pay the mortgage on their pounds 400,000 five-bedroom home because he plans to sell it. They divorced in October, and he has moved into a love nest with Sofia in Norwich, just miles from where Vanessa lives with the kids. She said: "He won't pay any bills and he's cut the Sky TV and the telephone off. The dishwasher, tumble-dryer and showers are broken and I can't afford to get them fixed.

"I don't know where we're going to live after the house is sold. I got a pounds 42,000 divorce settlement but that won't go far. One month he only gave me pounds 200 for the four of us to live on.

"He's driving a new Range Rover, wearing a pounds 7,000 watch and pounds 3,500 designer suits, and even though Norwich have been relegated, he's still on pounds 3,000 a week. Once I told him we were going hungry. Instead of giving me some money to look after the children he dumped two bags of shopping on the doorstep." The ex-hotel receptionist was 21 when she met Leon, a 17-year-old trainee for Crystal Palace, at a London gym run by his father. They married four years later but she soon discovered he had cheated.

Vanessa said: "It was with a girl called Emma he'd met in a Peterborough nightclub four years ago.

"I gave him a really hard time but I forgave him. "But just after I had our youngest child I found out he'd previously been seeing another a girl. I was furious." Leon has become a firm favourite at Norwich City since signing from Peterborough United for pounds 200,000 in 2003. Bosses at the club describe him as a "Canaries legend" on the team's website.

He scored seven goals in 37 Premiership appearances last season - but a recurring ankle injury means he has managed only five appearances for the Championship side this season. "Norwich give the impression of being a family club and players' wives are always invited to socialise with Delia," says Vanessa. "Since he left me I've been cut off."

And she says relations between the couple got worse over Christmas after he cut her son Jordan out of his life for good.

She said: "Leon spent most of the festive season sending me abusive text messages and then, three days after Christmas, he arrived in a taxi and threw presents just for his own two children through the door. He left nothing for Jordan, who's always seen him as his dad."

She said things hit rock bottom last week when Leon refused to pay any more school fees for their son Kasey, who attends an pounds 8,000-a-year private school near their home.

Leon is not legally obliged to pay but Vanessa said it meant the eight-year-old would have to leave the school in April. She added: "He is basically saying he doesn't want to see them." Leon was supposed to visit his children last Thursday but didn't turn up. Vanessa, who is half-Mauritian, says she is now thinking of returning to Mauritius to be with her family and rebuild her life.

She said: "I was in bits for months after we split and I contemplated suicide. I loved him to bits even though he treated me like s***.

"I was faithful but he was awful when I started seeing someone after the divorce. He doesn't want me, but doesn't want me to see anyone else.

"Life's a struggle with three children and my experience as a footballer's wife has been miserable.

Anyway, Chopra, what a t**t (because his silence on his problems clearly amounts to that)

Posted By: Barmaid, Dec 16, 13:23:26