Exclusive By Victoria Ward
3/02/2010
Former Steps star Lee Latchford Evans last night spoke for the first time about his relationship with Vanessa Perroncel – and revealed she was always after fame and money.
The boyband star was with the French model for two years at the height of his career, giving John Terry’s lover her first taste of showbiz.
He told how the 33-year-old made sure she was well connected. And he admitted that by the end, he may not have been quite famous enough.
Lee said: “Vanessa is the type that likes to be looked after, to be treated well. You have to have money to be able to do that. That’s what she always wanted. That’s what she’s about.
“She was always going to move on to bigger fish. I gave her a taste of celebrity and she wanted more. Footballers earn hundreds of thousands a week. She knew how to climb the ranks.
“She was always going to be with someone who could look after her and who was very good at what they do.
“She found that with me and she’s found that with other people.”
Lee and Vanessa first met backstage at a Smash Hits Poll Winners Party in 1999.
They were introduced through a mutual friend and Lee was immediately taken by her looks.
He said: “She's obviously a very beautiful girl. We got chatting about her modelling, I asked if she liked our act and we just hit it off.
“I called her about a week later and asked her out on a date. We met in Leicester Square and watched a movie. I remember she was wearing a big silver Puffa jacket.
“Me being me I was probably late which is never a good start is it?
“It didn’t spark, it took a while before we became an item. It wasn’t love at first sight.”
Steps were at the height of their fame and Lee got recognised wherever he went. He took Vanessa to high-profile London premieres, including The Beach and Ice Age, where they were snapped together on the red carpet. On one occasion they were chased down the street by 40 paparazzi, which Lee admitted was “crazy”.
He said: “I have never quite experienced the hysteria of the paparazzi as on that day. She didn’t know what to do with herself.”
Lee, who was 22 at the time, described Vanessa as “very friendly and very smiley”.
He said: “She was a typical girly girl who liked to look good and loved nice shoes and clothes and nail varnish.
“I would buy her handbags and clothes for her birthday or Christmas. She liked Prada.”
They went on two romantic holidays, to Dubai and St Lucia.
Vanessa was “up for anything” and they swam and scuba dived and made the most of their times away. Lee said: “I remember one time we were in hysterics when my shorts came down as I went down the biggest water slide in Dubai.”
Due to the nature of his job, Lee, 35, was away a lot touring with Steps and Vanessa visited her family in France, so the pair spent a lot of time on the phone and texting.
He said she accepted that and knew that as a pop star, he was never going to be at her beck and call. When he came home, they arranged to meet in Central London and stayed with each other when they could.
They spent one romantic New Year together in the capital, wearing masks so they wouldn’t get recognised.
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Lee said: “The lifestyle was so crazy that when I was back home we’d
just have a quiet meal somewhere and go to the cinema. She liked
Italian restaurants and would always have a few glasses of wine. Funnily
enough, we never went to a French restaurant.
“We tried to go to different ones so we wouldn’t get known in a certain place.”
They stayed at each other’s houses about twice a week but struggled to have much privacy.
Lee said: “It was difficult because we were both staying with friends, we didn’t have our own space. But when Steps toured in the UK, Vanessa would come to the gigs and then stay with me in the hotels afterwards. I’m not convinced it was her kind of music though.”
He said she was not really a big football fan and never expressed any love for any one team, though she was happy to watch games.
Vanessa met all of Lee’s family and friends but was quite private about her own personal life and rarely spoke about it.
Lee met her grandmother when Steps were touring in France and she was in Paris with her family. He said: “It was just a coincidence really but I left the band for a bit and we had dinner and spent a couple of hours together.”
Their relationship fizzled out in 2002, shortly after Steps went their separate ways.
Lee was “gutted” but knew that they both wanted different things. He said: “It was very much a feisty, love-hate relationship. By the end, we couldn’t get on together and couldn’t get on apart.
“We used to argue a lot. She would shout at me in French and it drove me mad.
“It was so annoying. I used to put on my scouse accent to annoy her back so she wouldn’t understand.
“We tried to make it work but we got to the point where we both understood it was over. We lived the dream, we were the big pop star and the model on his arm, and we got caught up in that but ultimately, we had different goals.”
Lee said he had no doubt Vanessa knew exactly what she wanted and went for it. He told how she enjoyed the attention that came with being linked to a pop star and admitted he would never know whether she used him for the fame. Lee said: “I believe she would always have ended up with someone that was successful and would be able to look after her.
“I would like to think she fancied me, even if I was a builder with my bum hanging out of my trousers. But I am sure deep down it does help if you’ve a little bit of security behind you.
“I don’t think she would have accepted anything else.”
Asked whether she was calculating enough to use him to get noticed, he said wryly: “Let’s not be naive. If someone is out there with a celebrity on her arm, of course they’ll get spotted.
“I would like to think I was not used but I am not naive enough to say fame didn’t play a part.
“We did live in a bubble 24/7. We were living the high life. Steps were very successful and I got recognised wherever I went.
“Vanessa was a model. She has done shoots and campaigns. She knows what it’s like to have her picture taken and be in the limelight.
“She was used to that scene. It was her social circle. She would always be at these glamorous events. If she wanted to be looked after that’s her goal and that’s what she wants.”
Lee said that he did love her but added: “Being in love is a very different question.
“What I was actually in love with was the lifestyle. I had the gorgeous model on my arm, picked up by limousines every day.
“I came from a very working class background. I was loving a life you only read about.
“But our relationship was not the be all and end all. I knew she wasn’t the right one for me. We were not going to get married and have kids.”