Sturgeon says she was deceived, betrayed and lied to over Murrell embezzlement

Sturgeon appeared at a writers’ event in Listowel, County Kerry, in conversation with author Andrew O’Hagan to promote her memoir, Frankly.

She told the audience it had been the “worst week of her life,” adding she had dealt with the fallout from Murrell’s plea in the public gaze.

Sturgeon said: “Just as other people have been, I have been deceived.

“I have been misled, I have been lied to and I have been betrayed, and I won’t be the last woman who has been betrayed by her husband.

“The circumstances might be unusual and difficult.”

She added that she would “probably need to sit with a therapist”, saying that “this is a long-winded way of saying I am not OK”.

She said: “I will be OK, I am a strong resilient person, I have had to be over the last few years, but this is a tough thing to come to terms (with).

“And it would be a tough thing to come to terms with for anyone who is dealing with this entirely privately, but I am not, I am having to deal with it in the full glare of publicity. So yes, it will be a process.”