Opik: "My heart was broken"

Lembit Opik has revealed that Gabriela Irimia left him broken hearted when she ended their relationship.

The politician met the Cheeky Girl in 2006 and the couple were briefly engaged before Irimia terminated the romance and refused to speak to Opik.

"The year 2008 was the worst year of my adult life. One former fiancée wrote a book about me. The other told me, through a newspaper headline, that she'd lost our baby," the Lib Dem MP told the Mail On Sunday.

Opik said that he was enchanted by Irimia's passion and zest for life when they met on Five programme The All Star Talent Show in 2006. However, the relationship started to falter due to their conflicting and busy schedules.

"You might expect such a colourful and passionate relationship to have ended in a blaze of emotions but the main characteristic of that period was not a great series of rows, just a deafening silence," he said. "It's important to emphasise that this relationship hadn't been a game to me. I was in it for the long run."

Opik revealed that he immersed himself in work, seeking a "quantum of solace" in the company of friends.

"I'd be lying if I denied I spent week after week in this state, still believing we could find a way back to each other," he said. "But on July 20 came a bombshell that blew my state of mind to pieces. Alerted by a concerned friend, I stood in a newsagent’s shop, staring at a Sunday paper front page. Its words, more than any previous revelation, taught me what it means to be heartbroken."