Imogen Thomas celebrates after Ryan Giggs withdraws blackmail claim

London: Imogen Thomas headed over to Harrods for champagne after Ryan Giggs accepted in court that she did not try to blackmail him.

In a High Court hearing, a judge hinted that the Manchester United star might lift the injunction which is supposed to ban any reporting of an alleged affair between the two, asking whether there was “any point in maintaining the anonymity”. The brief hearing was requested by the Welsh glamour model’s lawyers, and saw David Price QC read a statement in the case of CTB vs News Group Newspapers and Thomas, the Daily Mail reported. CTB is a pseudonym for Giggs, who took out an injunction in April to prevent the media from reporting allegations that he had an extra-marital affair with the former ‘Big Brother’ contestant. The 38-year-old footballer was the subject of so much speculation on Twitter that eventually Lib Dem MP John Hemming ‘outed’ him in the House of Commons. One of the arguments Giggs used to win the injunction against Thomas and NGN, publisher of The Sun, was that she was trying to blackmail him. He has now withdrawn that claim, prompting Thomas to say that she had been “vindicated”. “To suddenly have to defend my character because of this legal process has been extremely upsetting and stressful,” Thomas said in a statement after the hearing. “I’m just relieved that the parties and the court now accept that I’m no blackmailer. I have been vindicated and that’s all I wanted. “I have nothing to add - it’s all behind me now,” she added. ANI