Sting says the British are jealous of his success

Former Police frontman Sting has launched a, er, stinging attack on his fellow Brits, claiming that their jealousy prompted him to move to the US.

Of course, the man once known as Gordon Sumner comes from humble beginnings. His dad was a milkman and his mum was a hairdresser, and he was brought up in Wallsend, an unglamourous part of Newcastle.

These days he’s very much An Englishman In New York.

Sting reckons the reason he’s so divisive is NOT that some of us think he’s a bit rubbish. Oh no. He actually thinks that a lot of us just can’t handle the fact that he’s a working class lad who’s done well for himself.

“I’m more comfortable here [in New York]. I think I’m divisive in England,” he explained in a recent interview. “I don’t really belong to a class any more, so it’s better to be in a society like this, which is a little freer.”

Still, Sting’s desire to live in a “freer” society hasn’t prompted him to offload any of his eye-popping UK property portfolio.

Along with his missus, film director Trudie Styler, the 65-year-old owns a 17th-century manor house and 300-acre estate in Wiltshire worth £8 million. He’s worth an estimated £200m, and also has a Tuscan villa and properties in Malibu and New York. He sold his grand Westminster townhouse last year for £19million – £13.3million more than he paid for it.

Those with long memories might remember that Sting hit the headlines a decade ago when he was taken to an employment tribunal. His former chef Jane Martin claimed he and Trudie “destroyed her world” when they made her redundant after she became pregnant.

Among the more eye-popping claims arising from the case was the claim that Jane once travelled all the way from Wiltshire to London to prepare a bowl of pasta for Sting and Trudie’s kids.