SCRUMBAG
Stuart Hogg’s ‘secret girlfriend’ opens up on ordeal at hands of shamed rugby star days after he admits abusing wife
Jilly O'Donnell dated Hogg for three years after he approached her on social media in 2020 during the Covid pandemic
A WOMAN who previously dated disgraced rugby star Stuart Hogg has told how she was also harassed.
The former Scotland captain, 32, was convicted on Monday after admitting a five-year campaign of domestic abuse.
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The shamed fullback bombarded his estranged wife Gillian Hogg with hundreds of text messages and shouted and swore at her.
During his relationship with his wife, he also sparked up another romance with Jilly O'Donnell, 47, as reported by the .
The mum-of-three told in a sit-down interview how she found out that Hogg was married when he revealed him and Gillian were expecting their fourth child during a TV interview.
Jilly dated the Montpellier player for three years after he approached her on social media in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.
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But she has revealed that Hogg also hounded her with hundreds of messages and phone calls over 17 months.
Jilly said: "He manipulated me. And I believed his truth.
"And I was just unfortunate that I became a part of that. Looking back, three years just went like that, we were friends.
"Stuart told me that his relationship with his wife was very similar to my marriage. I've been divorced for many years now, but we were married young.
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"There was no intimacy. There was no love there.
"We had kids young. And I believed that what Stuart said they were together for the face of it, obviously for the rugby, they were well-known, and for the kids, and that that was how it was going to continue.
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"I had no reason not to believe that with how Stuart and I were."
But Jilly started to see through Hogg's "lies" as their relationship moved on.
She said: "When I seen it in the press, the story of Stuart in court with Gillian, I didn't see that story and think that that was so shocking. I was the opposite in fact.
"I seen the story and I was able to relate. I thought I can see Stuart doing that because Stuart has bombarded me with calls when they were unwanted, even when he had been told by me, 'Stop contacting me, I don't want anything to do with you'."
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Jilly was due to give evidence if the case went to trial at Selkirk Sheriff Court.
But it didn't go ahead after he said "yes" as Sheriff Peter Paterson read out the charge.
Jilly added: "I had a call at eight o'clock in the morning to have the prosecutor explain that there'd been a lot of negotiations happening that morning for several hours already and that Stuart had pled guilty.
"Initially I was happy that there was the guilty verdict for Gillian because that was the objective in all of this from the start."
But a friend of Jilly's has claimed without her evidence, Hogg would not have pled guilty.
The friend, who : "She contacted Gillian to tell her she had also been harassed by Stuart and offered to support her case.
"When she made a statement to the police in support of Gillian, her evidence was so strong they decided to press charges and treat her as a victim too.
"When she saw Gillian's case in the press she instantly realised that's the same Stuart that she experienced.
"Without her coming forward they wouldn't have been able to secure a guilty plea."
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Hogg will be sentenced next month and Sheriff Paterson will consider a non-harassment order stopping him from contacting Gillian.
The Record said Hogg declined to comment.
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