Stuart Hogg's former lover reveals abusive rugby player's secret life

A former girlfriend of rugby player Stuart Hogg claims he led a secret double life for three years while he was married and also seeing her. Jilly O’Donnell, 47, says she only realised the 100-cap Scotland international was still with his wife when he gave a TV interview to reveal the couple were expecting their fourth child together.

Hogg, 32, earlier this week pleaded guilty to a single charge of domestic abuse against wife Gillian. The pair are currently divorcing.

If the case had gone to trial Hogg would have faced a charge of sending Jilly hundreds of messages and bombarding her with calls over a 17-month period during which she begged him to stop. Jilly, a student nurse and mum of three from Newcastle, told the Mirror: “His actions and behaviour have caused so much hurt and anger to so many women. He knows that but somehow he will still end up being the victim.”

Jilly met Hogg via social media in 2020 during lockdown after the full-back began liking her posts on Instagram. She claims he told her he was separated but still living with his wife for the sake of their children.

She said: “We confided in each other, became best friends. He became everything to me. He would often tell me he liked that we had skin-on-skin contact, he missed that contact with another human being. Over three years we would meet up for walks, go hiking across Dartmoor, message, call, FaceTime all the time.

“We would go swimming every morning before he headed to work. He would call me from the dressing room and immediately after a big Scotland game. He would stay out drinking for hours and I’d pick him up at 5am with a drink in his hand. I had no reason to believe he had anyone else to go home to and that he was still happily married. I was naïve.”

Jilly says the pair ended their romantic relationship when Hogg and his family returned to the Scottish borders from their home in Exeter. She then found out via a TV interview that Hogg and his wife were expecting their fourth child and were in fact still an item.

Jilly added: “I was so shocked, I had no idea. We had been seeing each other plenty of times before he had moved. But he told me: ‘You know what I’m like when I’m drunk’ and said he wouldn’t put me through all this if he didn’t think we had a future and wanted to be with me.”

Jilly cut contact with Hogg when he began a relationship with current girlfriend, jockey Leonna Mayor. They are now expecting a child together. Police interviewed Jilly as a witness and after reviewing their communication brought a charge against Hogg for a course of conduct which caused her fear or alarm between April 2023 and August 2024.

Prosecutors filed six charges against Hogg spanning from January 2017 to July 2024 with one against Jilly between April 2023 and August this year. He pleaded guilty at Selkirk Sheriff Court to one single charge of abusing Gillian between 2019 and 2024.

Hogg will be sentenced next month. He declined to comment.