Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas agrees £75,000 settlement in HIV legal battle with ex

Gareth Thomas is a former Welsh rugby union player. He has represented Wales in both Rugby Union and Rugby League and was the country’s most capped player until he was surpassed in 2011.

He came out as gay in 2009 after splitting from his wife and childhood sweetheart Jemma in 2007, becoming the first openly gay rugby player in Britain.

Affectionately known as ‘Alfie’ because of his ‘resemblance to the alien character on the TV sitcom ‘Alf’, Thomas struggled with his sexuality for years, recounting how he came close to suicide on multiple occasions.

He told the Daily Mail in December 2009: ‘I was like a time bomb. I thought I could suppress it, keep it locked away in some dark corner of myself, but I couldn’t.

‘It was who I was, and I just couldn’t ignore it anymore. She had been through every emotion under the sun trying to deal with this.

‘You wake up one morning thinking, ‘I can handle it. It’s all good,’ and the next morning you don’t want anyone to see your face, because you think if people look at you, they’ll know.’

He continued: ‘Sometimes I felt so lonely and depressed. I have stood on so many cliff edges.

“I used to go to the cliffs overlooking the beach near our cottage at St Brides Major and just think about jumping in and be done with it.”

The year after he came out, he was voted the UK’s most influential gay person and has since worked with various LGBT charities, among others.

Thomas is the youngest of three children. His older brothers are Richard and Steven. His father, Barry, 69, is a retired mail carrier, and his mother, Yvonne, 70, a former hospital secretary.

He started his sporting career in his native Bridgend in 1994, staying there for three years. He made his Welsh debut the following year, representing his country until 2007.

With 100 appearances, he was the most capped Welsh Rugby Union player until 2011, when Stephen Jones took the accolade.

The fullback was Wales’ second-highest try scorer, behind Shane Williams and captain of his country and several club squads.

At club level, Thomas played for Bridgend, Cardiff RFC, Celtic Warriors, Cardiff Blues and French side Toulouse.

While in France, he was found guilty of assault in 2005. Two years later, he was banned from the game for four weeks on misconduct charges.

While still playing in France he suffered a major health scare following a neck injury. He was later rushed to hospital and it was suspected that he had had a stroke, and it was feared that the impact on his health might have led to his withdrawal.

After marrying his childhood sweetheart, Jemma, in 2002, the couple struggled with relationship problems.

Thomas said that he “knew I was gay” when he was around 16 or 17 years old, but did not come to terms with it until years later.

He admitted to cheating on her several times, insisting that he always practiced safe sex when sleeping with men.

The couple were married for five years, during which time Jemma suffered three miscarriages. They separated in 2007 and the divorce was finalized in 2009.

Thomas continued to play rugby until 2011 when he suffered a broken arm. After missing two months, he announced that he would retire from the sport in October of that year.

Since coming out in 2009, Thomas has worked with numerous charities including ChildLine, the Terrance Higgins Trust and Stonewall.

He was an ITV rugby pundit during the 2011, 2015 and 2019 World Cups.

In January 2012 he entered the Celebrity Big Brother House and finished in the final three.

A year later he appeared on Dancing On Ice, when he was teamed up with professional skater Robin Johnstone.

This was around the time a film about Thomas’s life was due to be made. Actor Tom Hardy was supposed to play Thomas, but the film later flopped.

His autobiography Proud was released in 2015, which provides harrowing details about his battle with his sexuality.

In November 2018 he was mugged in Cardiff city center in a homophobic attack. He took to social media to share his ordeal and petitioned South Wales Police to deal with the 16-year-old suspect through restorative justice.

In September 2019, he became the first major British sports star to come out as HIV-positive.

She said she has been living with the virus ‘for years’ and also revealed that she has now remarried to a man named Stephen, 56.

Her husband is HIV-free and the couple live in Bridgend, South Wales, with Stephen’s 23-year-old daughter Anna.