Ryan Giggs tells court ex-girlfriend was ‘happy that I persisted’

Ryan Giggs has told a court his ex-girlfriend was “happy” when he sent her repeated messages and turned up unannounced at her gym upon their relationship breaking down.

The former Manchester United and Wales footballer said that Kate Greville was “happy that I fought for us and that I persisted” when he pursued her after a fallout.

The trial had heard how Giggs sent “constant” messages to Greville and her friends and would turn up unannounced at her home, workplace and gym when she blocked his phone number.

Asked by his barrister, Chris Daw QC, to describe Greville’s reaction to his repeated contacts when they had got back together, Giggs said: “Just happy that I fought for us and that I persisted.”

Daw asked how Greville had felt on one of the occasions that the former Wales manager turned up at her gym. Giggs said: “Kate came out of the gym and she seen that I was there. She got in my car and we had a chat.”

Giggs, 48, said they had got back together as a result of that conversation.

The ex-footballer denies using controlling and coercive behaviour against Greville between August 2017 and November 2020.

He also denies assaulting Greville, causing her actual bodily harm and the common assault of her younger sister, Emma Greville, at his home in Worsley on 1 November 2020.

Earlier on Thursday, Giggs said he did not know why he had claimed in his first police interview that the Greville sisters had attacked him.

Under cross-examination by the prosecutor, Peter Wright QC, Giggs had no explanation for making that statement.

He denied head-butting his ex-partner after “completely losing his self-control” during an argument.

Wright asked Giggs about the prepared statement he gave to police the day after the incident, in which