Alex calls time on Best

The wife of George Best was back at her Surrey home today contemplating the possible end of her marriage after revelations that the soccer legend had cheated on her with another woman.

Alex Best, who has nursed her husband through his alcoholism and subsequent liver transplant, stormed out of their holiday hotel in Malta and returned to Britain in tears after it was revealed that the ex-Manchester United star was seeing 25-yearold Paula Shapland. Now Mrs Best, 31, has told friends her troubled eight-year marriage might be over.

She said: "I can't believe he would do this - would be so naive. I don't know what will happen to us now."

She added: "I am so hurt, I can't stop crying. Yet I am glad it is all over. I couldn't put up with it any longer. I've wanted to walk out for weeks."

The alcoholic Ulsterman has rarely been out of the news in recent weeks.

Last year he had a lifesaving liver transplant and was warned to stay off alcohol. But last month Best relapsed and ended up involved in a brawl in his local pub.

Despite his lapse, his wife took him back and Best took her away for a romantic holiday in Malta last Tuesday.

On Saturday night, the couple learned a Sunday paper was about to reveal Best's trysts with Shapland. Shapland, who met Best in his local pub, The Chequers in Walton on the Hill, Surrey, told the paper that Best had kissed her, tried to seduce her and then pleaded with her to run away with him.

The revelations sparked a confrontation between Best and his wife at their hotel suite which ended with her storming out. Her mother, Cheryl Pursey, said: "She is absolutely furious.

"It is bad enough her dealing with his return to drinking - but putting up with his womanising too is the final straw."