Ben Foden’s wife has lashed out at fans of his former wife Una Healy.
Jackie Belanoff Smith – who married rugby player Ben in August 2019 after just a few weeks of dating – took to her Instagram Stories to defend her husband and hit out at "Una fanatics" who have blasted him for not being with his kids, Aoife, eight and Tadhg, five, during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Jackie – who gave birth to her and Ben’s daughter Farrah in the US last week – wrote: "To be very clear, Ben is f***ing suffering not being able to fly back to see his kids, they were suppose to fly over in April and flights were cancelled.
"We are waiting EVERY DAY for updates on flights btw the US and England. We are hoping to have them all summer.
"The only time I’ve ever seen Ben cry was over a video of Tadhg missing him.
"He speaks to them EVERY DAY. We play virtual reality games like Roblox with them almost every day, I do as well, whatever we can do we do."
"Una fanatics are literally the most hateful people I’ve ever encountered."
She also lashed out at fans who have slammed Ben for cheating on Una during their marriage.
Jackie wrote: "Ben made one f***ing mistake, move on a******. He is a good man. He is a loving father.
"I do not care what these nasty people say to me, dm me that he’s a cheater etc etc BUT LEAVE THE F***ING KIDS OUT OF IT. This one really p****d me off (sic)."
Ben, 34, tied the knot with Una, 38, in 2012 but their marriage ended in 2018 after he admitted cheating on her.
He said last year: "At the moment anything that’s published about me is never very good and pretty rightly so because I was the one who committed adultery.
"At the same time, it wasn’t the only reason for our divorce to go through. It’s not ideal, but we’re very amicable, we’re getting through it, we’re not the first people in the world to get divorced. We’ve got two little kids we adore."