Ulrika: I helped Nancy

Ulrika Jonsson has claimed she was the best thing that ever happened to Nancy Dell'Olio.

The TV presenter said she did the Italian lawyer a favour by having an affair with her boyfriend, Sven-Goran Eriksson.

'In a way, I think I've done her a world of good,' she said. 'She is incredibly well-known now and that's something she obviously enjoys.'

Jonsson, who is pregnant by new husband Lance Gerrard-Wright, added the England manager got away with the affair because he was a leading figure in football 'which is more important than anything else in this country'.

Meanwhile, she was perceived as the guilty one. 'It became a match between me and her. But I didn't have a relationship with her, I had a relationship with her boyfriend. I'm sure she was pissed off with him for embarrassing her,' she told Hello! magazine.