Lampard slams radio station for remarks on his private life

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The radio station had branded Lampard 'scum' in a live broadcast.

New Delhi: Chelsea and England midfielder Frank Lampard phoned the LBC Radio station to berate a DJ who had insulted him on air.

James O'Brien had branded Lampard ‘scum’ in a live broadcast for not staying with his fiancee for the sake of his two young daughters.

On Friday, the first anniversary of the death of Lampard's mother Pat, the Chelsea star rang DJ O'Brien after family members had been distressed at hearing Lampard labelled as ‘scum’ for splitting with his long-time partner Elen Rives and supposedly showing little interest in his children’s lives.

O’Brien accused Lampard of not fighting hard enough to keep his relationship together, but the player called to defend his conduct. His former fiancee had described him as "heartless" in a newspaper article on Thursday, and an emotional Lampard rebuked the presenter for discussing the break-up of his relationship on air.

Elen Rives had said that Lampard had remained in the couple’s £8.5 million townhouse, which he had turned into a "bachelor pad", and was seeing another woman, while she and their two young daughters had been forced to move into a small flat after the couple's seven-year relationship ended last November.

However, incensed Lampard, 30, claimed that Miss Rives had decided to move out. "I hope one day your wife or girlfriend doesn’t come to you and say she doesn't want to be with you, and that means you won't see the kids a few days a week," he told O’Brien.

"Unfortunately, it has had a large impact on my relationship at home and I find it insulting that I wouldn't fight it tooth and nail, that's what I have spent time doing. You don't know anything about me. I find it insulting that you are insinuating that I am weak and scum because I have not fought tooth and nail."

He added: "You're saying any man that lets his kids live in inferior circumstances to him is weak and scum. You're insinuating that about me. I grade myself as a human being as how well I bring up my kids. I have woken up sometimes and seen a newspaper report of me coming out of a bar or club and they take pictures of two different women who I have never ever spoken to and say I spent all night sitting next to them. Then I have to wake up and listen to idiots like you. I have to put up with it and I've got to keep my mouth shut.

"My sister has been listening to this and it's the anniversary of my mum's death, so do you think my sister needs to hear you saying things like that on a radio station?" he asked O’Brien.

"Sometimes you need to think about things before you speak about them. I'll speak to you man to man about that, forget the radio station, I'll speak to you man to man."