Austin Powers beauty Elizabeth Hurley said she was “deeply distraught” on Tuesday by claims former lover Steve Bing made suggesting he might not be the father of her unborn child.
“I’m deeply distraught by Stephen Bing publicly declaring that he hadn’t been in an ‘exclusive relationship’ with me,” she said in a statement issued by her production company Simian Films. “This is the first I had heard of this and the implications are very painful, especially as I am shortly to give birth to his child.”
Steve, a film producer poised to inherit a family fortune conservatively valued at $400 million, has suggested that he and the 36-year-old stunner had only slept together twice. He has reportedly asked her to undergo a paternity test.
“Ms Hurley and I were not in an exclusive relationship when she became pregnant. It is her choice to be a single mother,” he said in a statement released early this week. “If indeed I am the father, I will be an extremely involved and responsible parent.”
Liz, the former face of Estee Lauder, tells a different story – that of a happy 18 months together. “I was completely loyal and faithful to Stephen throughout this time as, indeed, he assured me he was to me.” Relations between the two have since deteriorated and they now only communicate through lawyers.
Under California law, Steve could be forced to pay more than a quarter of his annual income in child support fees to Liz should he prove to be the father.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
