John Fashanu's Daughter Amal Speaks About Father's Bitter Divorce With Abigail....

According to this report backed with shocking Photos of John with blood all over him,John had suffered Domestic Violence with Abigail Onyewelu

The former football and Gladiators star will face his estranged wife Abigail Onyewelu when their explosive divorce hearing begins in Nigeria today.

Soccer legend John Fashanu’s daughter has slammed his ­estranged wife – calling her a “black widow” who had him ­under her spell.

Ahead of her dad’s divorce hearing on Monday, Amal claimed he suffered domestic abuse during a fiery marriage to her step-mother Abigail Onyewelu.

The 27-year-old London-based fashion designer said former Gladiators host Fashanu turned up at her home with a black eye.

And she alleged the retired England and Wimbledon player was attacked at least six times during his four-year relationship with Abigail – including with a glass and a sword.

Amal, who will be at her ­52-year-old father’s side when the high-profile divorce case opens in Nigeria next week, told the Sunday People: “Abigail is the master of subtle manipulation.

“She has been dubbed the black widow back home in Nigeria – and it is spot on. He was enchanted.

“While they were together I went from seeing my dad once a month to once a year. He vanished from his children’s lives.

"When I called to find out how he was and asked him to fly to London to see me, he would just say he couldn’t talk.

“I could sense Abigail was in the background, controlling him.”

London-born striker Fashanu, who played in Wimbledon’s 1988 FA Cup winning “Crazy Gang” side, has a black belt in karate – but seemed “genuinely fearful” of his lawyer wife, Amal said.

She said: “He has always had that tough-guy image but it was as though she brainwashed him.

“I know he suffered domestic abuse. Dad told me she attacked him more than six times, even though he only reported it three times to the police.

“One attack was with a sword. Another was with a glass.

“He also told me she’d fritter away £2,500 ‘play money’ he gave her, then ask for more. He was stupid and senseless but he feels huge regret now and is finally happy and free of her.”

Fashanu, known to fans as “Fash”, was with Amal’s mother, Spanish model Marisol Acuna Duenas, for nine years.

He then married another model, Melissa Kassa-Mapsi. They divorced in 2004 after having two sons, Amir and Akim, and daughter Alana.

Amal said “Our situation has always been unusual. I call us a ­modern family because from a very early age I have never known Dad to stay with one woman for too long.

“Maybe it is because his parents split when he was young. Maybe it is because women are his weakness. He loves their company – the affection, the touching, the cooking.”

Amal first met Abigail five months after their wedding, at her West London home.

She recalled: “As soon as Dad walked through the door with her I knew something was wrong. He had this big lump under his left eye. It looked bruised, like he had been struck, and there was a scar I could clearly make out.

“I knew I couldn’t ask him about it with her in the room. He seemed on edge. Abigail seemed very reserved and kept me at arm’s length.

“I couldn’t see what Dad saw in her. She claims she is 48 but Dad told me she is actually several years older than him. He has stunning women of my age throwing themselves at him, yet he went for her.

“It was only after I heard they were splitting that he told me the truth about his eye. He said she came at him from behind with a glass and cut him after becoming increasingly jealous.

“He told me, ‘She was convinced I had been having an affair. All she can think is that I am sleeping with another woman – and it is not true.’ He would never raise a hand to her though. He is too respectful of women to ever harm them.”

On file: Photo in police files of Fashanu with a cut hand after alleged attacks

Police reports of complaints by Fashanu include a photo of his cut hand.

Amal insisted her dad has never ­cheated on Abigail.

And she does not believe claims he had orgies during his marriage.

She said: “I haven’t asked my dad about those ­rumours, because I honestly don’t want to know. I am traditional and a Catholic.

"Abigail was obviously good fun in the bedroom, because I can’t think what else she had going for her. But I also know that footballers do those things.

“He also doesn’t need to sleep with his maid, as Abigail has claimed. He could sleep with anyone, so what on earth would he do that for? It simply isn’t true.

“He has said Abigail was always around women, though. She has asked him to retract comments that she is a lesbian because she wants to be a pastor.”

Alam also works as a TV presenter and made a documentary about homophobia in football following the suicide of her uncle Justin Fashanu, John’s brother and Britain’s first openly gay player.

News of the Fash divorce rocked Nigeria, where he is a football ambassador, property developer and TV star.

Lawyer Abigail is allegedly asking for £50million.

Abigail, the mother-in-law of Nigerian football star Joseph Yobo, said: “I am not making any comment. I am waiting for the court case to have my say.”

Recently she painted a totally different picture of her husband and their marriage problems.

She told the Sunday People in April that Fashanu’s claims she was violent were “ridiculous”.

Abigail said: “How can I kill him? How can ­somebody like me kill this huge man who is an expert in karate?”

She also rejected Fashanu’s claim that he threw her out of his house after finding her in bed with another woman.

Abigail said: “He didn’t kick me out of his house. I kicked him out.

"I caught him in bed with two women, the housemaid and one other woman. They were on the bed. They were undressed.”

Responding to claims she stole money from Fashanu, Abigail added: “Anybody can say anything.

"How can I go to his house and steal from him? I wasn’t living there with him.”

She added: “He’s sick and needs help.

"He knows how to manipulate people. I’ve no time for him.”

Culled from Mirror