Married couple: Rio Ferdinand and his wife Rebecca Ellison

During a 90-minute cross-examination, Gavin Millar QC, for Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd, said Mr Ferdinand had spoken about his family life in positive terms and was now attempting to suppress bad publicity.

Mr Ferdinand - who’s sex video happened during a holiday in Cyprus with fellow footballers Frank Lampard and Kieron Dyer – said in his statement that he ‘never claimed to be a role model on issues of morality or sexual conduct’.

But Mr Millar said: ‘You don’t have to be Mary Whitehouse, you don’t have to set yourself up as a guide of moral conscience. If you are misleading the public by your statements, the papers have a right to correct that impression.’
 
Mr Ferdinand has previously been accused of a five-year affair with Virgin Airways hostess Lauren Alcom, 29, and a long-running relationship with former Page 3 girl and Footballers’ Wives actress Holly McGuire. He did not sue newspapers over the allegations.

Mr Millar said the footballer seemed happy to talk about his children, and once described himself as ‘seriously vying for number one dad position’.

Yesterday Mr Ferdinand, who wore a navy suit and blue pencil tie, reiterated that he considers himself to be a role model and a ‘good dad’.

But Mr Millar said it was part of a carefully constructed image that he avoided mentioning his affairs in a series of promotional interviews for business projects including the online magazine #5, a range of shoes and a restaurant in Manchester.

Neither did he broach the issue with his one million Twitter fans, Mr Millar said, while ‘aspects of his life were airbrushed out’ of his 2006 autobiography Rio: My Life.

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