Photo courtesy of Josh Feit
Ann Corbitt, a legislative aide to city council member Tom Rasmussen, spoke to British tabloids today about her involvement in a British soccer sex scandal.
In July, Corbitt met married Chelsea soccer player Ashley Cole at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Seattle while his team was in town to play against the Sounders FC. In the tabloid News of the World, Corbitt described their one-night affair in extremely candid terms:
At first two other players and my friends were in the [hotel room] too, but they very quickly left. So by about 1am Ashley and I were alone, just lying on the top of the bedcovers and chatting.
Ashley was begging me to stay and, as I was having a good time, I thought I might as well. He kept telling me, ‘Just stay and sleep.’ So that was the pretence that I stayed under. I’d just sleep and leave in the morning. But almost immediately after that we started fooling around.
(It gets more salacious from there.)
The story of Cole’s affair has spread quickly across the British press, thanks as much to his fame as to his wife Cheryl Cole, who is a judge on “The X-Factor,” the UK’s equivalent of “American Idol.”
Currently, Google News shows 427 news stories about the affair.
Another likely reason the story is spreading so widely: British soccer fans are currently obsessed with footballers’ affairs in the wake of a scandal involving footballer John Terry, who lost his title as captain of the English national soccer team after news broke of his affair with a teammate’s girlfriend.
Additionally, a senior executive at the Chelsea Football Club reportedly advised Cole on how to cover up the affair when media started snooping around for details.
I contacted Corbitt by email to ask for her side of the story, whether she was quoted accurately in the News of the World piece (which includes exclusive screenshots of her text messages with Cole, a video interview with Corbitt, and numerous salacious details about her encounter with Cole), and whether she was paid for telling her story, a common practice in the British tabloid press, she said she had no comment, and suggested that I contact her press agent in London.
