BLACK-and-blue Sarah Harding yesterday showed her battered body to The Sun —
and gave her account of a brutal hotel fight with her boyfriend.
The tearful Girls Aloud star, 30, recalled how Theo De Vries held her by the
throat during the bitter bust-up in Innsbruck, Austria.
Dutch Theo, 35, earlier claimed the singer — who has a badly bruised arm —
launched an attack on HIM.
Emotional Sarah told how she was dragged around a hotel room by her HAIR during
a bitter brawl with her furious former lover.
The singer also said her ear was bitten and her head smacked against the floor
by Theo.
Sarah spoke out after reading an account by Theo, in which he claimed HE
was the victim of a booze-fuelled assault by HER.
Both now face the prospect of a trial over the fight, which erupted as their
rollercoaster romance careered off the rails during the early hours of New
Year’s Day.
Sarah had travelled with Theo to Innsbruck for a post-Christmas skiing holiday
to welcome in 2012. Theo told The Sun earlier this week how the pop
bombshell assaulted him during a bitter row in their four-star hotel room.
He said she bit him on the inner thigh and hit him in the face with a glass
ashtray, causing a black eye and bruising.
He claimed Sarah was drunk and may have been injured as he tried to “restrain”
her during the violent confrontation.
But sobbing Sarah, who met the sunglasses salesman while in rehab battling
booze problems, yesterday gave her version of events.
The star, who ended a rocky romance with DJ Tom Crane last November, said: “I
have a black eye and bruising. He had me by the neck, on the floor, and I
kicked him to get him off me.
“He grabbed me by my hair — throwing my head on the floor. We were struggling.
“While he had me by the hair, he was pulling me across the floor. He was
dragging me around.
“He was smacking my head on the floor. He bit my ear. And when I kicked him to
try and get him off me, I got his nose and he was bleeding. He smeared the
blood all over my face so it was all over my clothes.
“Look at me, look what he has done to me. That doesn’t come from just holding
me back. I’ve got bruises on my bum. Bruises on my legs.
“The damage to my arm is probably the worst. This is where they bandaged me in
hospital as they thought I might have fractured it.”
Sarah — who notched up four No1 singles and two chart-topping albums with
Girls Aloud — met Theo in Cape Town, South Africa, where she had fled to
rehab after finally admitting she was losing her battle with booze and
depression.
Theo was being treated for addictions to booze and crack cocaine.
After Christmas, the pair decided to celebrate the New Year with a “healthy”
skiing holiday, and booked themselves into Innsbruck’s Hotel Schloss Matzen.
But Sarah told how the trip turned sour and the couple become involved in
the violent argument.
She said: “During the row he said, ‘You’re nothing but a B-class singer. You
are just a f****** alcoholic. You have got no friends.
“He was really, really horrible. Any insecurities I had, he used them against
me. He was goading me. The abuse carried on and on and on till I’d had
enough.
“He got so horrible I threw a coffee cup at him. It missed. It was probably
coming up to midnight. I’m not going to lie, I had a gin and tonic at the
airport, but I was sober at this point. I wasn’t drunk at all.
“He didn’t seem drunk but he just completely changed character.”
Recalling their romance, Sarah added:
We met in rehab and I was at a real low in my life. We got on really well and
he was a completely different person when we were in rehab.
We just decided to give it a go. When we came back to London, things just
didn’t seem to be the same. It didn’t work.
I think he knew I missed Tom, because I do — desperately.
I think in a way I was on a rebound. I think that p***** him off. I called him
Tom a few times by mistake. He hated that. Probably when we were rowing —
probably because I used to shout at Tom.
Now I think he’s full of s***. Reading what he said in The Sun, I thought, ‘Oh
my God’. I never threw an ashtray at him. I threw a mug at him, because he
was goading me. He was being so foul to me.
They do say it’s frowned upon to get together with someone in rehab, but I
thought it was a safer option because we could both stay clean together and
sober.
When we got to Austria he said we could have a couple of drinks. He suggested
it. They say when one relapses, so does the other one and that’s the danger
of it. So yeah, I ended up having a few drinks with him and things got out
of hand. I felt I had really let myself down to be honest. I am really
ashamed about that.
We had agreed to go on this healthy skiing holiday, this detox thing to get
away for New Year. We decided to go together and agreed after that week that
was it.
After three days over there I had booked a flight to come home because we
weren’t getting on, making each other miserable. But my flight got cancelled
when I got to Innsbruck. So I went back to the hotel and that’s when it all
kicked off.
Sarah, nominated for five Brit awards, claimed Theo had brought booze into the
couple’s hotel room.
She said: “He had been buying wine every night and bringing it to the room. In
South Africa he had emptied mini bars so we wouldn’t be tempted.
“Towards Christmas it was getting harder with everyone celebrating and he
started saying we could have a few drinks because no one would notice while
we were over there. On the way to the slopes he was buying booze for when he
was skiing.
“We had one night when we drank quite a bit. He just did not want to stop. I
thought I could drink with the best of them, but he was drinking three
bottles of red wine. I am usually asleep after the first bottle. He was bad.
“I felt like s*** the next day. I was annoyed with him and I was annoyed with
myself. That was when I realised we were not good for each other. It was
tainted.
“Like I said, I cut it short by four days. Because I had to go back to the
hotel when my plane was cancelled, my taxi driver couldn’t get up the slope
because of the weather. My phone was dead so the taxi driver called Theo and
he told him, ‘She can carry her own f****** cases’.
“He was drunk. I had seen him bring wine into the room earlier. When I got
into the room I could see there were three empty bottles of wine in the
room. I asked what was his problem. He started getting more and more
aggressive and abusive towards me.
“Then he had me by the neck, on the floor, and I kicked him to get him off me.
I had never ever thought he would be capable of something like that. I was
just in shock.
“I was screaming and screaming and screaming for someone to come and
help. Then he tried to lock me in the bathroom. I managed to get out of
there and he was getting physical again.
“He threw me back down on the floor. I’ve got bumps all over my head.
“He had me pinned down by my throat and that’s when I bit him on the leg. We
were struggling on the floor. It was one giant struggle.
“He dragged me out the door. A Swedish couple found me, hysterical, lying in
the courtyard. They took me into their room and I asked them, ‘Please, can
you just call the police’? He took my phone off me in the room because I
said I was going to call the police.
“If I attacked him, why didn’t he call the police? And if I am such a drama
queen and an actress, why did the hospital put a bandage on me? Why would I
do that?
“They took X-rays and filed a report. The police came and I have had to pay
5,000 Euros now because the room was in my name, to pay for the damage done
to the room.
“The police took me to hospital. I kept asking them why they couldn’t arrest
him. They said I had more chances of pressing charges if I went to hospital.
“He was telling them I had attacked him. What? In self defence? He was
dragging me around the room by my hair and smashing my head on the floor.
“What was I supposed to do? Smearing blood on my face? What kind of person
does that?
“He is a scumbag. An absolute scumbag and I wish to God I could do something
about it. He is in Holland and I am over here.
“It would have to be a civil case and that will cost a fortune. It will be
lengthy, expensive and how do other women in my position cope with that?
“I have some money, and I could afford it. I really want to press charges but
it seems impossible. I just can’t believe that someone I trusted would do
something like that to me.
“I have spoken to Tom, he wants to kill him. We still have a lot of love for
each other, but we know we are just not right for each other at this point
in time.
“I think that’s what p***** Theo off. He knew that I still had a lot of love
for Tom.”
Sarah hit me, I just held her wrists
By ALEX WEST and GARY O’SHEA
ANGRY Theo De Vries yesterday repeated his claims that Sarah Harding was the
one who lashed out during their hotel bust-up.
He added: “She’s a bitch for trying to blame this all on me. I’ve never hit
anyone in my life. I did restrain her but nothing more.”
Theo blamed the ruckus on Sarah’s boozing — claiming she knocked back wine,
schnapps and cocktails during their stay. He added: “I thought we’d spend
our lives together. But when she drank she changed into someone I didn’t
recognise.”
Theo claimed Sarah attacked him after he decided to fly home alone from
Austria. He said she hit him in the face with an ashtray, punched him on the
nose and bit his leg.
He added: “I held her down by her wrists to try to stop her attacking me. The
bandage she had must be to do with that.
© The Sun 2012