Nancy Dell’Olio paid an emotional tribute to her former partner, football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, as she spoke about the last conversation she had with him before he died.
The 63-year-old Italian lawyer described the Swedish former England football manager as her “ex-husband”, while paying tribute to him on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, though the pair had not previously been thought to have been married.
Eriksson died on Monday, surrounded by his family, at the age of 76, having revealed earlier this year that he had pancreatic cancer.
Dell’Olio said she had hoped the pair would “get together for another dinner”, adding that she found it “hard pretending” he was not going to die.
Speaking as tears began to flow, Dell’Olio told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “When we (were) able to speak on the phone he was fine, because most of the time he was not answering or he said there was going to be some treatment.
“Well, it’s hard pretending that you don’t know that he was about to die, and I never thought about that, because this is the thing about life (while) life is on you always believe there would be some sort of miracle, or I thought at the beginning that the doctors had made a mistake.”
Dell’Olio went on to explain why she had stayed with Eriksson, between 1998 and 2002, despite affairs with TV personality Ulrika Jonsson and Football Association secretary Faria Alam, which attracted a huge amount of press attention during Eriksson’s time in charge of the national team.
She said: “First of all I made an important choice, I definitely didn’t want to regret the decision I made, and I knew that he was right.
“It was the right person to be with, it’s very more complex, I stuck with him because I know from him and he admitted as well recently, two days ago, that he had been very stupid.
“He told me immediately that they meant nothing for him, I would not even call (them) relationships.
“It was stupid for him to do it, and for his self-admission.
“So when you realise that he had no intention to break up, and it meant nothing to him, even though of course, it’s not easy working that out, but I think (it) was worth it.”
Presenter Richard Madeley went on to ask her if the couple’s high profile in the press during their time together had made it more difficult for them to continue.
She added: “It was definitely hard, because of the fact we thought we were prepared, but of course we were not prepared for that amount of attention.
“To be national England manager, we realised is third after the King, the Queen and the royal family, and the prime minister, then comes the national manager of the England football team.
“Then I believe there was this, and it was never there before and never after us, the fact it was together, it was Sven and Nancy, and the press (was) immediately being fascinated by this.
“There are so many elements, he was the first foreign manager.”
Eriksson led England to the quarter-finals of three major tournaments, and also won the Uefa Cup with Swedish club IFK Gothenburg, as well as leading Italian team Lazio to a Serie A and cup double, as well as the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
After leaving Eriksson in 2002, Dell’Olio embarked on a TV career hosting the MTV show Footballers’ Cribs, which saw her take viewers on a tour of England players’ homes.
She also appeared as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in 2016, along with the ninth series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2011 when she was paired with Anton Du Beke, with the pair being the fourth couple to be eliminated.
