RUPERT Everett, the actor who played Oscar Wilde in The Happy Prince, says he doesn't feel guilty for his six-year affair with Paula Yates behind Sir Bob Geldof's back.
In an interview with Piers Morgan, the 61-year-old spoke candidly about his relationship with the late Paula Yates, who died tragically, at 41, from a heroin overdose in her Notting Hill home in 2000.
Opening up about their relationship, Rupert told Piers: "We were very, very close, I must say, for a long time, and she's someone that I adored and still do.”
When asked if he loved Paula, Mr Everett said "I think I was in love with her. I adored her."
Challenged about whether he felt guilty about the affair, Rupert confidently shook his head and said "no", adding: "I don't know, I think it would be for her to feel guilty, not me."
The St Trinian’s actor – who considers himself a homosexual – became romantically involved with Paula after meeting her and her husband, Bob, in 1982.
The affair continued throughout the breakdown of Paula's marriage in 1986.
She was found dead in her Notting Hill home in September 2000 following a heroin overdose.
When asked if he believes he could have "saved" the troubled young TV personality from her accidental overdose, Rupert replied: "I am afraid once someone goes off the rails your instinct is to run a mile.
"Fate took such twists. If Michael Hutchence hadn't died, Paula might have survived. Hers was an incredible story in the limelight.
"She was just dealt card after card in the last ten years of her life."
In an article captioned, under My Life With The Divas, written in the Daily Mail in 2006, Rupert said: "I am mystified by my heterosexual affairs, but then I am mystified by most of my relationships.'
"That side of our relationship was tenuous to say the least, and our lives went in different directions."
He added: "She had a fragility that was erotic to men. She could break if you squeezed her too hard. "She had a tiny waist that you could put your hands around and your fingers would nearly touch.
"This was her most extraordinary feature, because it gave the man she let hold her a sense of protective power; even if you were gay, you could not help but feel turned on."
