Nigel Farage is EGGED as he hits the campaign trail for Ukip in Stoke after it emerges he is sharing a Chelsea home with a French waitress and the MEP's wife says they separated YEARS ago
- Farage joined Ukip leader Paul Nuttall on campaign trail in Stoke by-election but was pelted by a protester
- Incident came hours after his German wife, Kirsten, 50, confirmed the couple are separated
- She said the Ukip MEP moved out of their family home in Kent 'a while ago'
- Mrs Farage said: 'My husband and I have lived separate lives for some years and he moved out of the family home a while ago'
- Former UKIP leader, 52, is staying at £4m Chelsea house with Laure Ferrari, 37
- Politician confirmed Ms Ferrari was staying with him but denied having affair
- Do you know the egg thrower? Call 0203 615 1875 or email anthony.joseph@mailonline.co.uk
Nigel Farage was egged today as he hit the campaign trail for Ukip in Stoke after his wife confirmed they have split up.
The MEP was supporting Ukip leader Paul Nuttall's bid to win the Commons by-election when they were pelted by a protester.
The incident came after wife Kirsten confirmed they had been living 'separate lives' for years as it was revealed he is sharing a Chelsea mansion with an attractive French politician 15 years his junior.
Kirsten Farage, 50, who no longer wears a wedding ring, said that the former Ukip leader moved out of their family home in Kent 'a while ago' and 'this is a situation that suits everyone'.
Nigel Farage was on the campaign trail in Stoke supporting Paul Nuttall's by-eleciton bid when they were pelted by a protester
The MEP was supporting Ukip leader Paul Nuttall's bid to win the Commons by-election when they were pelted by a protester
The incident came after wife Kirsten confirmed they had been living 'separate lives' for years as it was revealed he is sharing a Chelsea mansion with an attractive French politician 15 years his junior
UKIP leader Paul Nuttall (right) and former Leader Nigel Farage MEP dodge an egg thrown by a youth as they arrive in Stoke-On-Trent for a public meeting
Mrs Farage told PA: 'My husband and I have lived separate lives for some years and he moved out of the family home a while ago'.
She added: 'This is a situation that suits everyone and is not news to any of the people involved.'
Mr Farage is living in a grand Georgian house in west London and former Strasbourg waitress Laure Ferrari has moved in too.
The former Ukip leader denied he is having an affair Ms Ferrari, the woman at the centre of a probe into illegal funding of his party, calling the idea 'crackers'.
Mr and Mrs Farage married in 1999 after his divorce from his first wife, and have two children.
Mr Farage declined to make any response to his wife's comments.
All over: Nigel Farage's wife Kirsten (both pictured today) revealed she and her husband have been living 'separate lives' for years
Yesterday Mr Farage was pictured getting out of his car wearing a dark green tweed jacket and a chequered shirt and briefly talking to reporters.
The MEP is believed to have left the property late last night or early this morning.
Mrs Farage, who is German, refused to answer questions about whether she was still with Mr Farage, or make any comments on the Mail on Sunday's front page.
She is still not wearing her wedding ring and rolled her eyes when reporters asked her questions.
Mrs Farage loaded her car with hockey equipment before taking her children to school.
Laure Ferrari (pictured), who is 15 years younger than the married Brexit campaigner, has moved in with Nigel Farage at a West London property
Meanwhile in Chelsea Laure Ferrari was photographed outside Mr Farage's home on Friday morning, dressed in tracksuit bottoms and putting out the bins, shortly before Mr Farage left in his chauffeur-driven Land Rover.
Mr Farage has confirmed that Miss Ferrari had been living at his Chelsea house but said it was 'crackers' to suggest they were having an affair. He told The Mail on Sunday he 'knew her well' but was just helping her out with somewhere to stay.
Miss Ferrari and Mr Farage first met a decade ago when she was a waitress and he got her a job in the European Parliament. Now she is the head of a think-tank accused of breaking rules by diverting public money to Ukip when Mr Farage was its leader.
Ukip is under investigation by the Electoral Commission watchdog for allegedly taking a total of £400,000 in dodgy donations from the think-tank and an affiliated political alliance, ahead of the General Election and the EU referendum.
Mr Farage said he was giving Miss Ferrari 'short-term help' with her accommodation because she had nowhere else to go and needed money.
Asked if he had slept with her, he said: 'I'm not answering ludicrous questions, like have you ever held her hand, ever had dinner with her.
German-born Kirsten's announcement came as it was revealed that Mr Farage is living in a grand Georgian house in west London (pictured leaving today) and Laure Ferrari has moved in too
Stony-faced Kirsten, 50, pictured today, walked onto the driveway before getting into a car and driving off
A solemn-looking Kirsten Farage today walked out onto the driveway from the couple's Kent home
'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. You can inflate it however you want to.'
Last month Miss Ferrari was also by Mr Farage's side at a glitzy Washington DC party to celebrate the election of his new friend, US President Donald Trump.
She runs the Eurosceptic think-tank the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE).
That, and a related political grouping known as the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE), have received more than £1 million a year from the EU.
But they have already been ordered to pay back hundreds of thousands of pounds by the European Parliament, while Ukip faces a fine of up to £20,000 if it is found to have broken British election law.
Mr Farage told this newspaper that he 'absolutely denied' claims of wrongdoing concerning any financial link, adding: 'We are fighting it very hard.'
Miss Ferrari said she had been forced to move out of her own flat after the European Parliament stopped the IDDE's funding and said: 'I have no trustworthy friends in London who could have hosted me. I asked and he accepted. He is just trying to be helpful.'
She, too, denied any affair, saying: '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.'
This newspaper told last month how Mr Farage was staying in a 'bachelor pad' in London on weeknights, but he refused to say where it was and denied that he had split from his German-born second wife, Kirsten, with whom he has two daughters.
When asked about the state of his marriage at the time, he replied: 'We get by and bumble along, like most people.'
Mr Farage, wearing a green tweed jacket and chequered shirt, speaking to reporters outside his home in Kent yesterday
Kirsten Farage, 50, pictured outside her Kent home without a wedding ring on her finger (circled) yesterday
She was photographed outside the property early on Friday morning, dressed in tracksuit bottoms and putting out the bins
Minutes later, Nigel Farage was pictured leaving the house in his chauffeur-driven Land Rover
His bolthole is a three-bedroom Georgian house, worth an estimated £4 million and owned by a businessman, in a quiet Chelsea side street
Mr Farage, 52, was pictured going into the property at 10.40am on Thursday morning
We can reveal that his bolthole is a three-bedroom Georgian house, worth an estimated £4 million and owned by a businessman, in a quiet Chelsea side street.
And 52-year-old Mr Farage has been sharing it with 37-year-old Miss Ferrari for a week.
They were certainly both there overnight on Friday. Mr Farage arrived at 10.40am on Thursday, dropped off by a Land Rover Discovery. He later went out and returned at 8.25pm, after his LBC radio show, entering by the back door.
At 8.03am the following morning, Miss Ferrari emerged from the front door dressed in a grey sweatshirt, casual blue jogging bottoms and a beige wool hat. She placed a black bin liner full of rubbish and another clear bag of recycling outside the front wall.
Mr Farage emerged from the back door 25 minutes later, in his usual outfit of tweed jacket and mustard corduroy trousers. He was picked up by a Land Rover Discovery.
He returned back to the Chelsea house at 10pm, having spent the day campaigning for Ukip ahead of a key by-election in Stoke-on-Trent.
Mr Farage (pictured) said he was giving Miss Ferrari 'short-term help' with her accommodation because she had nowhere else to go and needed money
Miss Ferrari has previously spoken of how she began working for Mr Farage and fellow Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom after meeting them in the Strasbourg restaurant where she waited tables in 2007.
She once told an interviewer: 'I met these two MEPs and we started talking about politics.
'The two Brits have no hierarchy and neither of them comes from a political background.' In June 2013, Miss Ferrari posted on Twitter a link to a newspaper feature asking 'Why do more women want to bed Nigel Farage over David Cameron?'
She was originally Mr Bloom's parliamentary assistant then head of public relations to a European Parliament grouping led by Mr Farage, and was a candidate for a small Right-wing party known as Debout la République (Arise The Republic) at European elections in 2014. The party, since renamed Debout la France, is one of ten nationalist parties that make up the ADDE group, which was set up in 2014 by Ukip and funded by the European Parliament.
In March 2015, she was elected as executive director for the ADDE's think tank, the IDDE. The two organisations share an office in Brussels but Miss Ferrari moved to London, setting up a consultancy firm from an address in Clapham.
Miss Ferrari spoke alongside Ukip politicians and other Brexit campaigners at public events in Dorset and Norfolk ahead of last June's referendum.
Late last year Miss Ferrari became caught up in the scandal involving Ukip funding ahead of the Brexit poll and the 2015 General Election, in which Mr Farage unsuccessfully tried to become an MP. The European Parliament announced that, following an audit, it discovered that the ADDE and IDDE had mis-spent €534,478 (£461,658) of taxpayers' cash on political parties and election campaigns, much of it benefiting Ukip.
European Union money is only meant to be spent on activities at a European level, not on domestic campaigning.
The ADDE carried out nine opinion polls in the UK, published a report and carried out consultancy services connected to the polling, which 'breached the rules for European party financing'.
It was told to pay back €172,655 and had another €248,345 grant withheld. It has been claimed that ADDE cash was given to Ukip staff to canvass voters in seats where the party hoped to do well. And the IDDE paid for a poll 'related to the EU referendum in the UK'.
It was said to have wrongly spent €33,863 in total, including paying for a Dutch referendum advert arranged by Mr Farage. The Electoral Commission then announced in November that it would investigate Ukip to see if 'the party accepted impermissible donations' from the two groups, following the European Parliament ruling.
It said that after 'these expenses were declared as non-eligible for the financing' by Brussels, 'the Commission has opened its own investigation into Ukip to look at whether there has been any breach of UK election law. This includes whether any impermissible donations have been accepted.'
Political parties are meant to record all donations and check they come from permissible sources.
If they are found to have committed offences, parties can be ordered to pay back donations and hit by fines of up to £20,000.
The Electoral Commission said last night that its investigation was ongoing.
Nights spent working on his campaign dressed in her nightie while her husband ‘went down the pub’: How Nigel Farage’s wife has batted away regular affair claims
Nigel Farage's wife Kirsten remained steadfastly loyal to him even as claims of affairs surfaced and she saw more of him on TV than at home.
Mrs Farage spent the day caring for their children and doing the housework before often long evenings as his secretary toiling away on a computer in her nightie.
Kirsten, 50, a German-born translator, said she accepted her workaholic husband's lifestyle but had also encouraged him to change his 'bad' habits in recent years.
She said once he 'drinks and smokes too much' and feared for his health because he skipped meals and often lived on adrenalin.
While she was at home in Kent there have been repeated claims Mr Farage had liaisons with other women but he has again written off affair rumours as 'bonkers'.
All over: Nigel Farge and his wife Kirsten, pictured at the Ukip spring conference at the Margate Winter Gardens, are now living separate lives
Denial: There have been repeated claims Mr Farage had liaisons with other women but he has again written off affair rumours as 'bonkers'
Former Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom, once Mr Farage's Brussels flatmate, even said publicly that his friend's one weakness, above booze and cigarettes, is women.
Today it was revealed that Mr and Mrs Farage have walked away from their marriage.
She admitted they have been living separate lives 'for years' and 'that suits everyone' - her husband has not yet made a comment but last month when asked about the state of his marriage, he replied: 'We get by and bumble along, like most people.'
Over the years her husband has broken all the political rules to boast about his smoking, drinking and even visiting lapdancing clubs.
In 2014 he was accused of having had an affair with Annabelle Fuller, then 32, one of his spin doctors.
But in her typically circumspect manner Mrs Farage told reporters outside their home: 'We will be discussing it tonight.'
Privately she was said to be more upset, and it was claimed later she was involved in an astonishing public bust-up with Annabelle.
According to the Mirror Mrs Farage confronted her at a UKIP election party and allegedly told her: 'I will have security drag you out by your hair if you don't leave'.
Both Farage and Fuller have vehemently denied any affair.
In the same year he was seen walking into a hotel with a mystery blonde woman at 3.42am after a boozy night out in Malta.
As he returned from the trip, Mr Farage angrily dismissed allegations of inappropriate behaviour as 'fluff and nonsense', saying: 'I didn't go to bed with her.'
On one occasion she was drawn on claims that her husband was unfaithful.
She said: 'I have heard it before and it always comes from the same sort of people who wouldn’t possibly know'.
Honest: Mrs Farage (left today and right in 2015) has admitted they have been living separate lives 'for years' and 'that suits everyone'
Mrs Farage admitted that while he was on the campaign trail, working or down the pub she was often sitting at a computer in her nightie 'dutifully' working as his secretary.
She and Mr Farage met in Frankfurt in 1996, while he was travelling on business shortly after his divorce from his first wife, Grainne, the mother of his eldest two children.
Later, he explained the reasons for his divorce in typically flamboyant style: 'My marriage, which had been on ice and torpid with its claws bound for so long we had both forgotten it was alive at all, finally expired.'
Of the moment he met Kirsten, he once said: 'She was a stunning government bond broker whose brisk efficiency at first sight belied her ethereal appearance.
'She could have stepped into a pre-Raphaelite painting no questions asked.'
The couple married in 1999 and have two children.
She gave up her career in the City, where she worked as an interpreter for a German bank, to look after the children and do her husband's correspondence.
When she worked for Mr Farage she wrote all his emails because he dislikes using computers.
She also worked from home and rarely visited Ukip's HQ in London's Mayfair, which she described as a 'freak show'.
Low key: Kirsten is rarely seen in public and at Ukip conferences, she would sit anonymously in the audience or sell merchandise on a stall with other volunteers
Party sources say Mrs Farage is 'brilliantly intelligent' and was a key figure behind the scenes.
'I work from home and Nigel is never there, so I am a single mother in many ways,' the mother-of-two joked previously.
'Someone has to be there and take the children to school.'
In a clue to their domestic arrangements, Mrs Farage revealed that her husband did not even know where basic household equipment was kept.
'He just called me and asked where do we keep the ironing board as he needed to iron his shirt,' she said.
'I'm not that surprised. It is a bit worrying.'
She is rarely seen in public and at Ukip conferences, she would sit anonymously in the audience or sell merchandise on a stall with other volunteers.
Mrs Farage is in many ways the complete opposite of her husband, rarely speaking in public and shunning the 'sad' role of politician's wife.
The former Ukip leader was often so busy that she and their two children only saw him on television and were unable to holiday in the UK or go out for a meal together because of the attention her husband attracts.
His gruelling schedule as party leader meant that he was up by 5am and works seven days a week, travelling on average eight hours a day to speak at meetings across the country.
Mr Farage has previously admitted that he has not spent enough time with his children.
He said: 'In an ideal world children benefit from having some sense of stability with preferably two parents and not one.
'And that really, for more than the last decade, has not been the case with me.
'Men tend to be more single-minded and selfish in terms of the choices they make and the effect it has on their families.'
Mrs Farage also rarely gives interviews but has on occasion lifted the lid on their life together.
She told the Telegraph previously she was very worried that his drinking, smoking and long working hours could make him ill.
She: 'I do – I think it is a very hectic lifestyle.
'He doesn't get a lot of sleep, he doesn't get a lot of rest, he lives on adrenaline a lot, he doesn't eat regular meals, now I am beginning to sound like his mother, and he smokes and he drinks too much.
'But if you have that sort of lifestyle I think it is what keeps him going, it keeps the adrenaline going.'
In another rare interview German-born Kirsten also denied the Ukip leader is racist, insisting he does not have a 'bad bone in his body' and the accusation 'hurts him'.
'If he was a racist I wouldn't be with him. I don't think he has got a nasty bone in his body – he is not a bully, he likes things done properly,' she said.
Mrs Farage added: 'It hurts him being personally attacked but it doesn't make me feel uncomfortable because I know he is not a racist.'
She also revealed the stark impact on their lives of his party's successes – saying the couple, who have been married for 15 years, are now unable to holiday in the UK or go out for a meal together because of the attention her husband attracts.
Mrs Farage, who is notoriously publicity shy, broke her silence to paint the father of four as a dutiful family man who enjoys watching Dad's Army.
As she made a rare appearance at the party's spring conference in Kent yesterday, German-born Mrs Farage said she keeps a deliberately low profile.
Asked if she would be joining her husband on stage to embrace and kiss him after his speech, she replied: 'No. Definitely not. That's really quite sad.'
Asked about the contradiction of having a German wife while railing against immigration, Mr Farage has previously deflected the question by joking that their marriage is proof he loves Europe.
Do you know the egg thrower? Call 0203 615 1875 or email anthony.joseph@mailonline.co.uk
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