Yahoo News Nigel Farage's wife pictured without wedding ring as ex-Ukip leader forced to deny affair with French housemate
Nigel Farage's wife has been photographed without her wedding ring as the former Ukip leader was forced to dismiss suggestions he is having an affair with a French politician 15 years his junior.
Laure Ferrari, a 37-year-old former waitress, has been sharing the weekday home of Mr Farage, 52, in London's Chelsea.
She was photographed on Friday morning putting out the bins at the three-storey rented Georgian property shortly after Mr Farage left in his chauffeur-driven Land Rover.
Mr Farage has dismissed as "crackers" suggestions that he is having an affair with Ms Ferrari, the executive director of the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE) think-tank.
On Sunday, Mr Farage was photographed returning to his family home near Biggin Hill, Kent.
Kirsten, his German-born wife with whom he has two daughters, was also seen leaving the property without her wedding ring.
Mr Farage told the Mail on Sunday that he and Ms Ferrari had a "working relationship" and dismissed any suggestion of an affair as "ludicrous".
Asked by reporters on Sunday if he wanted to comment further, he said: "I've said what I've said."
Ms Ferrari heads a think tank at the centre of an investigation into the alleged misspending of European Union funding of Ukip, according to reports.
The Electoral Commission has opened an investigation into whether Ukip accepted £400,000 in "impermissible donations" from the IDDE and another political alliance in the run-up to the general election and the Brexit referendum.
The claims have been strongly contested by Ukip and Mr Farage has said the party is "fighting it very hard."
The European Parliament had advised the Commission that "it has formally concluded that the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE) and IDDE used EU grant funding for the benefit of Ukip in breach of its rules and, therefore, these expenses were declared as non-eligible for the financing".
Ms Ferrari first became involved in politics as a result of a chance meeting with Mr Farage ten years ago, while she was working as a waitress in Strasbourg.
On Saturday night, she insisted she had been forced to move out of her own flat after the European Parliament stopped the IDDE's funding.
"I have no trustworthy friends in London who could have hosted me," she told the Mail on Sunday. "I asked and he accepted. He is just trying to be helpful."
Asked by the newspaper if he was having an affair with Ms Ferrari, Mr Farage said he was not prepared to answer "ludicrous questions".
You are putting two and two together, but it is not as simple as that. I cannot stop people from fantasising
Laure Ferrari
He said: "She is someone I have worked with and known well for a long time who wanted somewhere to stay for a week that wouldn't cost her any money. It's a working relationship."
Ms Ferrari said: "You are putting two and two together, but it is not as simple as that. I cannot stop people from fantasising.
"I am not pleased to be in this situation and I am so sorry it is bringing awful things on Nigel's life and on my life."
The pair met in 2007, when Mr Farage was dining with his friend Godfrey Bloom, then also a Ukip MEP.
"I met these two MEPs and we started talking about politics," she said later. "The two Brits have no hierarchy and neither of them comes from a political background."
Within months, Ms Ferrari was made head of public relations for the British delegation to the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, which was led by Ukip.
"Everyone says that I am Nigel Farage's parliamentary assistant, but this is not true," she told the EurActiv news website in 2014.
"I was head of public relations." In March 2015, she was appointed executive director for ADDE's think tank, the IDDE.
Last month, Mr Farage said that he spent most week nights at a "bachelor pad" and denied that he had split from his wife.
Mrs Farage has worked as his parliamentary secretary and the couple met on a business trip to Frankfurt.
He has always made an effort to keep his wife and four children from the public eye.
