Last updated at 12:35 PM on 27th December 2011
Over the weekend, they became embroiled in a Twitter row when Elen Rivas accused her ex Frank Lampard and his fiancée Christine Bleakley of ‘trying to stop his children from speaking to their mother over Christmas’.
But it has today been claimed that Spanish Rivas had tried to call her daughters at 3am over the Christmas weekend when they were asleep.
It has also been claimed that the girls, Luna, six, and Isla, four, may have started calling their almost-stepmother Bleakley ‘mum’, which, if true, is sure to upset Miss Rivas.
Bitter row: Elen Rivas’ children apparently call her ex Frank Lampard’s fiancee Christine Bleakley, ‘Mum’
It has been more than three years since she and footballer Lampard called off their engagement.
Rivas,
36, hit out at both the Chelsea footballer, 33, and Dancing On Ice
presenter Bleakley, 32, on her Twitter page on Christmas Eve.
She is currently in India on a ‘spiritual’
journey, meaning she is spending her first Christmas without her
daughters.
The former WAG claimed she attempted
to speak to her girls on the phone to wish them a ‘happy Christmas’, but
Lampard wouldn’t allow her.
Clearly upset, she then blasted the England footballer on Twitter, then brought his fiancée into the argument.
Happy together: Bleakley became engaged to the Chelsea footballer in June this year
She wrote on Christmas Eve: ‘You would have thought the girlfriend would have a little maternal understanding…’
Despite claiming she didn’t want to
get involved, Bleakley retweeted other comments from followers
suggesting ‘a dignified silence’ was the best way to deal with the
situation.
Last night a source close to the
couple claimed in the Daily Mirror: ‘Elen announced she was off on holiday for
three weeks over Christmas and New Year and wouldn’t be taking her
mobile.
Missing her girls: Rivas hit out at Lampard and Bleakley on her Twitter page on Christmas Eve
Tricky: The TV presenter retweeted a comment about mothers leaving their children at Christmas
‘Frank and Christine were delighted to have the children for the whole festive period and have been having an absolute ball.
‘Christine’s been spending an
increasing amount of time with the kids. They adore her – and vice
versa. They’ve taken to calling her ‘Mum’, which is incredible – she’s
so touched.
‘When Christine read Elen’s Twitter comments she was understandably incensed and incredibly frustrated.
‘She spent Boxing Day with her sister
Nicola and the kids, taking them for a country walk after Christine’s
mum cooked lunch for both the couple’s families at their London home.’
Christine and Frank had been to Winter
Wonderland with the children and are going away on a ‘family minibreak’
in the new year, the paper reported.
A source close to Elen says she is ‘happy for Frank to have the kids this Christmas as she had them last
year. She just wanted to make sure she could speak to them on
Christmas Day’.
Elen and Frank have shared custody of their two daughters since splitting in November 2008 after seven years together.
Once upon a time: Lampard was engaged to Rivas for seven years and they have two daughters together Luna and Isla
Bleakley, who will host Dancing on
Ice next month, dated her footballer partner for ten months before
meeting his girls because she didn’t want to be ‘someone who came and
went in their lives.’
When Lampard was criticised in the
media for remaining in his £8.5million home while Rivas was living in a
flat, he phoned up London radio station LBC to defend his corner.
He told host James O’Brien in April
2009: ‘Unfortunately I’ve split up with my girlfriend so they’re now
living in a temporary flat in Fulham/Chelsea, and it’s not a bad flat at
all and I’m actually buying them a house at the moment which is of
equal living standard if not more to mine.’
Family: Rivas in Barcelona earlier this year with her daughters Luna and Isla
He also pointed out that Rivas called off their engagement – not him.
He said: ‘I hope one day that your
wife or your girlfriend doesn’t come to you and say I don’t want to be
with you any more and unfortunately that means you won’t see the kids
for a few days a week.
‘That will hurt with you as well but you’d have to deal with it… it’s breaking my heart, do you think I’m happy?’
A short time later, Lampard ended up buying Rivas a £2.8million Chelsea townhouse for her to live in with their daughters.
Link:
Frank Lampard’s children ‘call Christine Bleakley mum’ as Elen Rivas ‘rang them at 3am on Christmas’