Gazza's stepdaughter tells of abuse

Abuse claim: Bianca Gascoigne
11 April 2012
The Weekender

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Bianca Gascoigne has spoken about her stepfather, ex-footballer Gazza, claiming that he was abusive nearly every day

The teenager's mother Sheryl was beaten by the soccer star just four months after their glitzy showbiz marriage.

The pair later divorced on the grounds of his unreasonable behaviour.

Bianca, 19, told glamour model and fellow Love Island contestant Alicia Douvall, 27, that people still do not know the full truth of what happened in her parents' home.

She said: "How he was with my mum and stuff, he was abusive. Every day near enough.

"Since I was four years old, and they got married when I was eight or so. They were on-and-off for a while and then my mum split up for a while. (They were together) for a long time."

The teenager added: "It was good of him to take us under his wing. He was very generous.

"At the beginning he was really cool to be around cos he'd always want us to do things together but at the same time it's hard to accept what he was doing.
"I love my mum and knew what was going on, and people to this day have no idea what went on in our house.

"There's speculation a couple of times but they don't know the full story."

She added of her father, who famously fought a battle with alcohol; "It's hard because we always opened our arms to dad when he was going through his worst and he's gone into clinics and come out.

"My mum and dad split up and we let him back in our house and tried to help him, and try to do the best we could for him but it didn't work out.

"If you want to help yourself you have to want to help yourself. You've got to at least try. I don't know what he's doing now but I don't want to say too much."

She said: "It's hard because he was good to us and did give us this fantastic life, not that that's got anything to do with it but at the same time I'm so close to my mum.

"I won't let anyone hurt my mum, it's so hard for me. My mum absolutely loved him."

  • Last night's programme was watched by an average of 2.1 million viewers - down from 2.9 million on Tuesday and 3.2 million on the launch night.

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