How the wife of former Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys 'realised he was having an affair'

Sports presenter Richard Keys’ wife realised he was having an affair when she began writing a book about infidelity.

Trained counsellor Julia Keys revealed she used her skills honed over a 20-year career to pen a book about the sensitive subject of helping women identify if their man is cheating.

Mr Keys, 59, is said to have continued his affair with 27-year-old lawyer Lucie Rose - a friend of their daughter Jemma - after previously pressuring his wife to into saying it never took place.

But it emerged last month that the pair spent two nights together in a West London hotel - prompting Mrs Keys to call her husband of 34 years a “pathological liar”.

In her first interview since claims of an affair re-emerged, published in the Mail on Sunday, she explained how her research in writing the book helped her discover how Mr Keys began showing classic warning signs of infidelity - signs she calls the “manscript”.

Mr Keys, for one, began being over protective with his mobile phone - and it paused her to stop and think: “Hang on. I think something is going on with Richard.”

Mrs Keys, 57, then explained how she acted on her suspicions and she said women should “trust” their gut feeling,

On one occasion she even pretended to be her husband to communicate with Ms Rose, via text messages which she sent from her husband’s phone.

She said: “I’d been working on this book about how to tell whether a man – it’s usually the man – is cheating.

“These men behave in a very predictable way. We call it the manscript.”

Mrs Keys, who had two children with the former Sky Sports football host, says his behaviour towards her also provided clues - such as acting defensively when she quizzed him.

She explained how women who suspect their man of cheating feel “isolated and alone”, and she said: “I felt that too. So bewildered. And so betrayed.”

The couple first met when he worked for Radio City in Liverpool as she was waiting to start her training as a nurse - and said he was a caring husband and father to their children.

As her husband’s career soared with Sky thanks to the growth of the Premier League, Mrs Keys herself became a respected relationship therapist.

But Mr Keys parted company with Sky in 2011 when remarks he made about a female colleague were caught on tape, and he today works for a TV station in Qatar.

It was there where he is said to have met Ms Rose, and when Mrs Keys said she began joining the dots.

She said the moment it clocked was when Ms Rose confronted her at a party hosted by Mr Keys, quizzing her as to why she was leaving early.

She said: “When Richard came home we went to bed, but in the early hours I went to his phone and there was a message from Lucie saying, “Where are you? I ran after you and came out as soon as you’d left.”

“When I confronted him, Richard brushed it aside and said he’d been helping her with a medical matter. He was dismissive.”

A few weeks later, Mr Keys is said to have received more messages from her as he slept, and Mrs Keys pretended to be him in the responses.

She said that when she confront her husband about it, he admitted he got “extremely close” to Ms Rose, and that it “hugely upset” her.

She said his lawyers persuaded her to keep quiet when the revelations leaked to the press, but that she “knew it wasn’t over”. Then the fresh pictures of them together emerged - prompting feelings of “anger”.

Mrs Keys added: “When you’re constantly being told, “It’s all in your mind” – which is part of the manscript, by the way, to shift responsibility – that “You’re mad,” or “You’re imagining things,” you start to believe it.

“I called Richard and I said, very calmly: “I’ve just been shown some photos of you and Lucie. There is really nothing left to say, is there?”

“He didn’t reply. He couldn’t. I’m really, really sad that at this stage in our life we find ourselves compromised in this way.”

The book, called The Man Script, is expected out soon.

A representative of Mr Keys declined to comment, while and Ms Rose did not return a request for comment.