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AGAINST ALL ODDS
Phil Collins’ ex-wife says she loves him and will ‘remain in his life’ despite bitter £14m court battle
PHIL Collins' ex-wife has said she will always love the rock icon and "remain in his life" despite a bitter £14 million court battle over their second split.
Orianne Collins, 47, said the court drama left her "very sad" and she wishes their differences could have been settled in private.
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Speaking at an event in Las Vegas, the jewellery designer also said she’s unhappy at being painted by some as a "b****" after details emerged of her legal bid for a chunk of 70-year-old Collins’ fortune.
"It was very hard for me, because I had been 26 years with one person," she said.
"You have the ups and the downs. We got separated and got divorced one time and then we got back together and things didn’t work out. And it’s sad.
"It’s very sad. But he’s still the father of my children, I still love him and he will always remain in my life.
"And the fact that everything went out of hand is totally sad, because it should have been kept in the family.
"But there’s some bad people… so I’m dealing with things that are not necessary and it hurts everybody more than it makes everybody happy."
In recent months, Collins and Orianne, who share two sons, Nicholas and Matthew, have taken swipes at each another in the Miami courts as her legal team push for £14 million – half the value of the Genesis star's Miami beach front house.
Orianne, who Phil reportedly paid £33 million in their 2008 divorce settlement, said she is now settled with new love Thomas Bates.
And so much so that she's managing 31-year-old Bates' music career and planning a tour this winter - the same time her ex returns to North America with Genesis' stadium tour.
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Orianne said: "I’ve found somebody in my life who I’m very happy with. He’s an artist, he’s a singer and a guitar player. He’s going to launch his album at the end of the year.
"Very nice guy, super simple and down to earth, which is great, and he has a fantastic voice.
"I mean I've been living with a pop star, so I can tell you he has a great voice and I am his manager."
And Orianne said she isn’t bothered by people passing comment about the age gap.
"It’s been a very pleasant journey," she said.
"We have a difference of age, obviously, but I’m a young spirit, I’m a free bird, so it was the same as when I was with Phil and had a bigger gap in between me and Phil than me with my new husband.
"But hopefully everything will settle down and the dust will come and everybody will be happy and living their life. I think that’s the most important."
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Orianne insisted that she wants to move on from the court drama and focus on her charitable work.
Her Little Dream Foundation, co-founded with Phil, helps people, who like her, have suffered crippling spinal injuries.
Orianne came back from the abyss when she woke paralysed from the neck down in 2014 after a shoulder operation, fearing she would never walk again.
The Swiss Thai designer spoke at the unveiling of her OC Wonders Collection's new lotion, Magic Lotion, at Berger & Sons Fine Jewellers at the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas.
Orianne added on her philanthropy: "It’s super frustrating, because you pass for a b**** in the story and I am not.
"I’m a good person and I’m very generous and I always have been in my life... 21 years I’ve been taking care of children out of my pocket.
"I work for no money… I give my time, my energy."
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Rock icon Collins was left "shocked" last summer when Orianne left him and wed a much younger man soon after.
She reportedly held Collins' waterfront mansion "hostage" with armed guards on the premises as he tried to "evict her".
A bitter court battle has raged since with slurs from both camps.
Orianne’s team accused the singer of being "unhygienic", "incapable of having sex", adding his "stench became so pervasive that he became a hermit".
The rocker's lawyers demand those allegations dismissed calling Bates' claims "scandalous, scurrilous, unethical and, for the most part, patently false or grossly exaggerated", adding: "The only reason these allegations are included is a malicious motive - extortion."
The pair started dating when Orianne was just 21 and was hired to be Collins' translator during the singer’s 1994 tour of Switzerland.
They wed in 1999, then his third wife, and had their two sons.
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Despite Orianne marrying banker Charles Fouad Mejjati in 2015, they reunited.
Orianne's OC Collection has grown in recent years with her new full-body beauty serum called .
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