I've had ace Sol's lovechild .. andI'll prove it

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, May 30, 2004 | by EUAN STRETCH

ENGLAND soccer star Sol Campbell was caught up in a paternity battle last night over a six-week-old baby boy.

Mum Janet Tyler insists that her son Joseph Jeremiah Tyler- Campbell is his love child.

But England's highest-paid footballer is just as adamant that he isn't the father.

Janet, 33, says she gave birth to the pounds 5million-a-year Arsenal star's son at the end of their two-year relationship.

She says the child shares Campbell's striking facial features and long legs.

Within the next seven days Campbell, 29, will discover if he is the father when the results of DNA tests come through.

Whatever the result, the bitter paternity battle has cast a dark cloud over the central defender in the run-up to England's first match in Euro 2004 against France on June 13.

Campbell has made it clear he wants nothing to do with the child which he has never seen.

He even appointed a specialist lawyer who it is believed offered Tyler money to settle the case out of court.

Janet considered the offer "derisory" and has told her friends that her treatment by Campbell - who earns pounds 100,000 a week - has been appalling.

A close friend told the Sunday Mirror: "Janet is no gold-digger. She simply wants Sol to acknowledge that Joseph is their child and have some involvement in his upbringing.

"She told Sol immediately she became pregnant and was careful not to pester him into taking some responsibility.

"She foolishly thought that once the child was born, Sol would show some interest.

"But he has wanted nothing to do with Janet or the child and that has really upset her.

"The only communication he has with her is now through his lawyers.

"However, she is confident that the DNA tests will prove her right."

Janet, a company director who lives in a Hertfordshire village, says that she first dated Campbell around May 2002.

She stopped seeing him last December after she had told him that she was pregnant.

"Campbell was not very happy," added the friend.

On April 12 Miss Tyler gave birth to Joseph by emergency caesarean at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital at Welwyn Garden City, after a traumatic 24-hour labour.

Campbell was not present at either the labour or the birth.

Joseph's birth was registered on May 21. Although the father's name was left blank on the certificate Miss Tyler pointedly incorporated the footballer's surname with her own.

Campbell is currently dating wealthy interior designer Kelly Hoppen, 44. It is not known what he has told her about the child and his relationship with Miss Tyler.

The friend added: "Janet had known Sol for a couple of years and considered him a friend and a gentleman, but he hasn't acted like one.

The last time she had contact from him was a couple of weeks before Joseph was born and he asked which hospital she was going to be in and that was it."

In his self-promotional video Sol Man, filmed last June, Campbell talked about his desire to have children.

He said: "Yeah, I want children. I want four kids. You get to an age where you start to think about things like that. You want a family."

Campbell - who at one stage was also dating former Miss Wales Tamzin Proctor - is one of England's most popular characters and a key part of England coach Sven Goran Eriksson's Euro 2004 squad. Campbell, who started his career with Tottenham Hotspur, made a controversial big money move to North London rivals, Arsenal, three years ago.

euan.stretch@mgn.co.uk

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