Roman Abramovich’s ex-wife Irina talks of kidnapping fears

The former wife of Roman Abramovich has offered a glimpse at what it was like being married to the billionaire oligarch. In a rare interview given to the Russian edition of OK! magazine, Irina Abramovich (above, with Roman) reveals that while chugging around the Mediterranean on anyone of her ex-husband's superyachts was fun, it was accompanied by a good chunk of fear.

"My life with Roman was not the fairytale that the papers reported," says Irina, who was the tycoon'ssecond wife. "For my security and that of our children, he [Abramovich] hired a group of bodyguards from a protection agency.

"We changed mobile phone numbers once a week so nobody could trace my whereabouts. We were afraid of kidnapping attempts. Yet we could not hide our children and not show them real life. So we went to theatres and museums with a crowd of bodyguards. Each year it got harder for me."

The couple, who have two sons and three daughters, divorced in February last year, with 41-year-old Irina reportedly receiving £150 million from her husband's £10.8 billion fortune.

Despite her husband's new relationship with Dasha Zhukova, 27, Irina says that Abramovich is an exemplary father. "I had grown up without a father. And that is why it was so important to me that my children would never be in need of anything. Roman promised me this is the way it would always be. Even now he keeps his promise."