Steve opens up in tell-all book

2008-10-03 08:02

Philip de Bruin

Pretoria - Janine van der Vyfer, the woman with whom the singer-actor Steve Hofmeyr had an extra-marital affair for 10 years, "harboured a blistering jealousy towards Natasha (Hofmeyr's wife) and despised my time and holidays with my wife and family".

This frank confession comes from Hofmeyr's book that is being released on Monday.

After their relationship ended and she was suing him for the money he supposedly promised her, he realised: "I never knew this person. This couldn't be a relationship based on love."

"I should have realised long before then that pleasure sometimes has precious little to do with love. To finally realise that was very painful for me."

"You don't often lose two people you love overnight. Janine turned against me for money and Natasha didn't want to forgive me."

As far as her abortion was concerned, Hofmeyr said no one forced her to do it. "No one, but no one on God's earth, tells Janine van der Vyfer what to do."

"Our relationship according to her started in 1997 (a year before his wedding). What actually happened between us in 1997 was sex. Once. And it was consensual. She drove the 40km to my house in her new Opel for it."

'My wife was sleeping upstairs'

"Even by 2000 I still thought every time would be the last time. But by 2001 I knew I had a problem. This ship was simply too big to turn around."

"I believed she really loved me and I meant it when I told her that I loved her. But the nights I spent working at my computer at home I was at my wits' end. Because my wife was sleeping upstairs."

"We regularly broke up. The time when she supposedly moved in with Dozi to go on tour with him was my fault. I could have forgiven Dozi if he hadn't known what was going on. But he did. Janine played her cards well."

He says she has been the inspiration for several of his songs.

About the effect of the relationship on his wife, Hofmeyr said she wasn't "naive".

"She is still fighting for the space to be able to make decisions for her own survival and in her own best interest. She knows I always loved her. Otherwise I would have been disqualified long ago."

- Beeld