She wasn't in court. But over the next few weeks she appeared in hundreds of stories. The Sun told the world in some detail that she had slept with a total of five Chelsea players and included a quote from an anonymous source, who conveniently spoke in the style of a tabloid journalist: "To say she's a Chelsea girl is a bit of an understatement. We also know Terry did not buy Perroncel's silence for figures estimated to be anything from £400,000 (Times) to £800,000 (Evening Standard). She looks cold and hard and exhausted by repeating it while wondering if anyone will ever believe her. This is how she met Wayne Bridge in 2004, "when I was working, by the way, because I wanted to earn extra money, not because I was plotting to meet a footballer. Loads and loads of times! Be aware. All the best sex scandals are stage-managed by Clifford. I wanted the happy-ever-after, the fairy tale. she says. That worked: the reporters left her doorstep and dealt with Clifford. Asked whether she had had an affair with the married father of twins, she replied: 'No, I think I made that clear. The fact that you wouldn't speak, wouldn't play the tabloid game, I say. "Take Terry away, and what have you got? If Perroncel hadn't been quite so gorgeous, in quite such an aloof and unattainable way, she wouldn't have been such excellent paparazzi fodder; nor would she have been so easy to dislike on principle. In the latter stages of January 2010, Terry applied for and got the super injunction; it was overturned within 10 days by high court judge Mr Justice Tugendhat who said, damningly, that: "The nub of the applicant's complaint is to protect his reputation, in particular with sponsors. I don't want you to go and write that Vanessa Perroncel wants to get back with Wayne Bridge, but…", "I can't imagine being with another man and raising our son with him. For Wayne to know the truth. But until that point there had been nothing of a sexual nature. It felt horrible. Gold digger. • Claims raise issues about media law and ethics, Perroncel’s experience in the last two months goes to the heart of a considerable confusion about journalistic ethics and media law. Clifford says it probably would have been better for her if she had slept with Terry. No interest. I'll tell them: short-term gain, long-term pain. Evidence for the affair comes from journalists with a vested interest in it being true, from a number of nameless, faceless and unsubstantiated sources (ah, the unimpeachable credibility of the anonymous "close friend"). She takes a steadying breath. She is exasperated. "For my son never to read these stories.