Although the police statement referred to an alleged offence , they did not actually give a name of anyone.
Having read this, I find it interesting in connection to how all things, seem to have been taken out of Cliff's hands.Maybe he's changed his Will too !
Extract: Cliff’s great friend, TV presenter Gloria Hunniford (pictured with him), observed that John McElynn has allowed Cliff to ‘spread his wings’. Another friend says that John has ‘opened Cliff’s eyes to the many joys his millions can bring him’
John also took on responsibility for looking after Cliff’s four properties, in Sunningdale, Portugal, Barbados and New York. ‘It takes a great weight off my mind,’ said Cliff.
‘He is very good at it — in fact, I’m amazed at how good, because you wouldn’t necessarily think a priest would be good at dealing with workmen or architects or even a vineyard [Cliff has one at his estate in Portugal], but he’s very practical.’
More than an employee, John became a friend. ‘He has also become a companion, which is great because I don’t particularly like living alone, even now,’ wrote Cliff.
‘And crucially he knows how to work computers and send and pick up emails and handle all those technological things that seem to be so vital today, and that I know so little about.
‘Nearly all my communications with the office now go through him. And after 20 years of simple living, I don’t think he’s having too much difficulty adjusting to the odd glass of fine wine!’
Those who know Cliff say that he has changed since he met McElynn. He used to be a man of extremely humble and simple tastes — now he has the confidence to enjoy his wealth and the freedom it offers.
He has become more at ease and expansive, offering the Blairs a holiday at his mansion in Barbados, and hobnobbing in New York with philanthropist and former Conservative Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft.
Today, it seems, McElynn has quit the priesthood. There is no reference to him in the national U.S. directory of Catholic clerics, and the spokeswoman for the Congregation of the Mission said: ‘He is no longer a priest in our community, he’s out of contact with us.’
McElynn’s mother, Betty, elliptically told a newspaper in 2006: ‘He left for the same reasons so many of them leave. I know about his new life and Sir Cliff, of course. I hope they are happy.’
Cliff has declined to say whether their close relationship is a friendship or a romance. He has always talked of McElynn as his travel companion.
He told a TV show this year that gossip about him being gay had hurt his family when he was young, but added: ‘Who cares? It doesn’t really matter to me any more. I have got gay friends. Most people have gay friends.
‘If I was gay would it make any difference? Would you not come to my concerts because I was gay? I hope not.’
Regardless of such issues, Cliff’s life has changed enormously since meeting McElynn. In Barbados, where Cliff has a house on the Sugar Hill plantation, they mix with a glitzy crowd.
Tennis champion Virginia Wade comes over to play on his court, and they often see Cilla Black, who has a home on the beach and has known Cliff for so long that she once admitted she had a crush on him when she was a schoolgirl.
Writer Steve Turner, author of the star’s authorised biography, said: ‘Cliff has started to spend money rather than save it. He’s been doing a lot more travelling and seems to have a new lease of life.
‘It’s clear that he is much happier in himself since meeting the priest. He’s gone from someone who rarely invited friends to dine at his home to doing a lot more lavish entertaining.
‘His decision to sell himself as a brand name, branching out into perfume and wine, also appears to be largely due to McElynn’s influence.’
Cliff’s great friend, TV presenter Gloria Hunniford, observed that John McElynn has allowed Cliff to ‘spread his wings’. Another friend says that John has ‘opened Cliff’s eyes to the many joys his millions can bring him’.
Now, as Cliff faces perhaps the greatest crisis of his professional life, his friend the former missionary will be needed at his side more than ever.
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