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Ex-wife and lovers 'see George Best's ghost'
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 UNITED KINGDOM. A year after the death of one of the world’s greatest footballers, George Best, it has been claimed that his ex-wife, Alex, has had his ghost for company throughout the past 12 months. He would sit and watch television with her and move objects around the home they shared.
Now comes news that his former mistress, Ros Hollidge, and his last lover Gina Devivo, as well as best mate and manager Phil Hughes, have all experienced strange happenings that they attribute to George’s spirit.
Alex Pursey was married to Best from 1995 to 2004 and helped him through the worst of his alcoholism and his liver transplant, before divorcing him in 2004 when he continued to drink and found him in bed with another woman. She also claimed he had been violent towards her.
Best, 59, died after multiple organ failure on 25 November 2005, refusing to let his estranged wife, Alex, visit him during his last weeks of illness. His family finally relented when it became apparent that he only had hours to live.
 But, according to Daily Telegraph columnist Celia Walden (writing in her Spy column on 25 November 2006), Alex Best, 34, has told friends that she has been haunted by the ghost of her late husband all year.
“It started in April, when Alex kept saying that she felt things were being moved around by George in their old house in Surrey,” a friend said.
“She then claimed that he would appear in his old chair by the fire and watch TV with her, sometimes even switching the lights on and off and playing tricks on her.
“Alex said she never felt threatened – that he was a benevolent presence which she found oddly reassuring. It even made her reluctant to sell the house, but she was finally forced to do so.”
 The beautiful former model – who has now moved to a smaller house in Wimbledon, south-west London, where she owns a wine bar – has said that one year on the apparitions have stopped.
“George hasn’t been back since she left the barn, and she sort of misses his presence now,” a friend told the journalist.
A request from www.ParanormalReview.com to Alex Best’s publicist, Camilla Storey, for confirmation or denial of the story, received a response on 29 November, four days after the story appeared, rejecting the account as “made up and unsubstantiated”.
She told us in an e-mail:
“Alex Best categorically denies making any comment to Celia Walden either directly or indirectly, on this subject. Furthermore the original story which was run last April in the Mail about the same matter was totally fictitious, and she never participated or spoke directly to a journalist about that either. The whole article is made up and unsubstantiated, and she is very upset about it.”
But Celia Walden is sticking to her story. When www.ParanormalReview.com told her of the denial, she responded: “I am not surprised to hear that Alex’s PR denied the story – however, it is totally true, and something Alex has spoken about a little bit in the tabloids. There are quotes from her on the subject in the Sun, back in April...”
It is not unusual for a journalist to refuse to reveal the source of a story. And in a case where the reporter and the subject of a story make opposite claims about its truthfulness, we have to ask our visitors to make their own judgment.
In this case, however, there appears to be corroboratory evidence from others who knew George well, and even from Alex Best, if a News of the World story (3 December) is to be believed.
In it, Ros Hollidge told reporter Phil Taylor that her lights and TV turn themselves on and off, doors open and shut at will and George’s favourite song – “She” by Elvis Costello – once blared through the house after the CD player had been turned off.
Gina Devivo is said to have panicked when glasses flew around her home, her TV flipped over and a smiling vision of George appeared on her bed. She has twice consulted medium Ivan Lee at Wimbledon Spiritualist Church and is pictured with him in the newspaper.
“The first time I didn’t tell him who I wanted to contact. But he suddenly said, ‘I’ve got a man. I’ve got a George here.’ He told me so many things only George would have known about—like the elephant ornament he bought me.”
And Alex Best – despite her denial of an earlier story – is said to have told the News of the World: “Funny things did happen after George died, mostly involving water. Taps went on in the middle of the night in our converted barn. And as I left my hotel room for George’s funeral the shower just turned itself on full blast and I couldn’t shut it off. My passport also went missing. I can’t believe the same thing’s happened to Phil and Ros. It leaves me cold.”
We checked again with Alex Best’s publicist to see if she would corroborate or deny the latest story. And this time the response was rather different. She confirmed that a News of the World reporter had called Alex but she “did not enter into comment, save to confirm that she had previously told the manager, Phil Hughes, that some strange things had occurred.”
The publicist added: “Alex does not want to be involved in all of this and is not prepared to comment further.”
George Best’s spirit made the headlines in August this year when a Sunday newspaper reported that medium Derek Acorah, himself a former professional football player, would attempt to communicate with him at an up-coming demonstration (in September) at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
Best’s funeral at Stormont on 3 December 2005 was the closest thing to a state funeral that Northern Ireland has seen. It received live television coverage from all the major broadcasters and an estimated 100,00 mourners lined the route. He was then buried beside his mother in a private ceremony at Roselawn Ceremony.
But Acorah, whose theatrical appearances on Most Haunted (pictured below with the show's presenter, Yvette Fielding) and various other TV paranormal programmes have made him a celebrity, denied that he would be attempting to make contact with Best's spirit during his Belfast show.
Belfast City Council issued a statement at the end of August saying:
 “Derek Acorah said he was sistressed to hear of an article in relation to his contacting of George Best during a show next month at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall. Mr Acorah did not originate any comments on this issue and was responding to questions put to him by a journalist. Furthemore, the journalist misquoted what he said.
“Mr Acorah will not be including any reference whatsoever in any of his shows to George Best and will not make any further comment on this issue as he is only too aware of, and regrets, the distress that the reporting of this story has already caused the Best family.”
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Posted on Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Category: Ghosts
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