Shocking tragedy that tore Lawrence Dallaglio’s life apart before brothel scandal & wife’s pal fling he ‘never got over’

HAVING weathered cheating scandals, brothel parties and financial ruin, it seemed Lawrence Dallaglio’s marriage could have survived anything. But yesterday, 20 years on from tying the knot, the former England Rugby World Cup winner and his model wife Alice’s divorce was revealed, as they tried to thrash out a separation settlement in court. The couple had survived a steady succession of scandals throughout the decades, including Lawrence's party-boy ways in the Nineties and then Alice's affair with a multimillionaire property developer in 2003.

Allegations of the TV pundit, 52, splurging £10,000 at a brothel, famed for £300-an-hour sex workers, followed, alongside a driving ban and the collapse of his business with a £700,000 unpaid tax bill. Yesterday an insider told MailOnline the “marriage never really totally got over Alice’s fling”, which they “could not completely forget”, and “Lawrence’s own behaviour and shortcomings” also contributed to the split.

To outsiders, the rugby star's trespasses were pure hedonistic - but behind the scandalous moments lie a great tragedy that shaped and tortured him from his teen years. The seismic moment was the tragic death of his 19-year-old sister Francesca in the 1989 Marchioness disaster and, subsequently, struggling to deal with the feeling his, and other families, never truly got justice. The teen was the youngest of 51 to die when the 85ft party boat sank after being mounted and forced "underwater like a toy" by the Bowbelle dredger, which was three times longer and 1,472 tonnes in weight.

Lawrence, who was just 17 when talented ballerina Francesca died, believed it contributed to a reckless streak, explaining: “From that day on, life was never the same and still never has been the same.”. He revealed he came close to going off the rails in the wake of the tragedy, before finding solace in rugby. “I channelled my energies in a very different direction and I was getting into all sorts of trouble here, there and everywhere,” he said.

He later told the Rugby Journal: “We were very close and obviously that incident and that tragedy, was horrific, and, you know, it blew us apart really in many ways, as it would do to anyone when you lose someone so close to you. “It was a very difficult time…for a couple of years, I was definitely questioning the reason for being, questioning what’s going on, and it took a bit of time... I was making some poor life choices and not really heading in the right direction.”.

Lawrence considered the loss of Francesca, who was described as a "diamond" and an “emerald, full of laughter and the love of life”, as one of “those sliding door moments” that shaped him forever. He revealed he too should have been at the party but opted to have dinner with his family, due to having a headache. Lawrence said: "I chose not to go. Probably one of the few parties I’ve ever turned down and she went along, and she passed away. I decided not to go along and I’m still here.”.

The morning the news broke, Lawrence was woken up by his mother Eileen, who told him Francesca hadn’t come home. "I could hear the helicopters overhead and I immediately thought to myself she must be dead," he later said. "She was very sensible, she was everything that I wasn't at that age. The fact that she hadn't come home told you everything.". The Marchioness was carrying 131 passengers on the River Thames when it sank just 26 minutes after departing Embankment Pier at 1.20am on August 20.

It was revealed the Bowbelle’s captain Douglas Henderson had drunk six pints of lager on the afternoon of the fatal collision and there were “poor lookouts on both vessels”. Tragically 51 people died in the Marchioness Disaster and many of the families felt let down because it took more than a decade to get a public inquiry. Two cases were brought against Douglas Henderson, captain of the Bowbelle, for failing to have an effective lookout but they resulted in a hung jury.

A private prosecution for manslaughter against directors of the South Coast Shipping Company, which owned the Bowbelle, and corporate manslaughter against the company were dismissed due to a lack of evidence. While there was an inquiry in 2000, many of the victims' families were dissatisfied and felt justice had not been service. The Metropolitan Police were found to be “ill-prepared” to tackle such an event too and increased safety measures were introduced on the Thames, including four new lifeboats, better tracking of river traffic and illuminated bridges.

Mum Eileen spent years campaigning for justice, even buying one share in the Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) Group, which owned the Bowbelle, so she could attend the AGM and lobby for an enquiry. Lawrence Dallaglio said: “It was a tragedy which wasn’t really handled by the government or the people involved very well at all. “[Initially] there was no public inquiry, which there should have been, like Hillsborough.