She may have put on a brave face as she was pictured for the first time since the news broke, but Michelle Mone could just be putting on an act.
The 40-year-old businesswoman is said to be 'devastated' by the betrayal of her estranged husband Michael's alleged affair with one of her employees.
It comes as the identity of Samantha Bunn is revealed after apparently being fired by the blonde Ultimo boss.
Brunette vs blonde: Michelle Mone (R) is said to have fired Samantha Bunn after discovering she had struck up a romance with her estranged husband Michael;
Pictured at a wedding dressed as a bridesmaid, brunette Bunn looks nothing like Mone but is said to have been pictured arriving at a hotel with Mone's husband after she hired a private investigator to follow them.
‘Seeing pictures of them together was the worst moment of my life,' Mone is said to have told a confidante. ‘I can’t explain the hurt and damage this has caused.’
According to the Scottish Daily Mail, Mone - who turned her revolutionary design for a comfort bra into a global brand - is preparing to battle her husband for control of MJM International, the £40million firm they built.
‘They are at loggerheads,' a source told the newspaper. 'Michael is the business brain but Michelle is the public face, a marketing genius who courted the limelight on television shows such as Masterchef and The Apprentice.
Brave face: Michelle Mone was snapped leaving her home today amid reports she trashed her estranged husband's car after finding out he was seeing her friend;
‘But it turns out he has one share more than she does – she doesn’t understand how he managed that – and she believes he is trying to get rid of her. The last thing she will do is let him take the business.'
Mone was seen just hours after it emerged that she trashed estranged husband Michael's Porsche with a key after she found out that he had spent the night with the Ultimo designer, who Michelle considered a friend.
According to a friend, Michael was 'furious' and threatened to go to the police.
‘She spent a lot of time training Sam and regarded her as a family member,' they added. 'They would work out together and go for runs.
The brasserie mansion: Michelle was seen leaving her huge pile of bricks in Thorntonhall, South Lanarkshire;
'Michelle had taken her under her wing, letting Sam live in her homes in Glasgow and Mayfair. Sam sat at the kitchen table eating meals with her and the kids.’
But according to Michael, infidelity was not the reason for the marriage breakdown - which they announced shortly after Christmas.
He was reported to have said: ‘There was no affair and what is happening now is private. Prior to our split, there was no relationship. If anyone is saying that is the reason for the split, that is untrue.’
But despite the ongoing drama, it is business as usual for Mone after she was spotted leaving her home on Thorntonhall, Scotland in her shiny black Range Rover on Sunday, her face expressionless giving nothing away.
And while she is yet to comment on the revelations, she has referenced the the situation on her Twitter page.
Shock split: Michelle Mone and her husband Michael announced their split after Christmas following 19 years of marriage;
'Thanks 4 all ur support.I'm heartbroken,been saying since last year.I allowed her to stay in my home etc,all she did was lie.My priority are my kids&business,' she wrote.
On Thursday she also left a cryptic message on her page which read: 'Lesson never trust anyone 100% apart from your kids & mum & dad.'
Mone -who was married to Michael for 19 years - is said to have noticed something suspicious when Sam was constantly in her husband's office.
'About two weeks ago, Michelle asked her outright if she was having an affair with Michael. Sam denied it point blank.'
Michelle allegedly hired a private investigator, who took photographs of Michael and Sam going to a hotel room together.
In February, Mone, whose lingerie business had a £10.3million turnover last year, revealed her pain over the breakdown of their marriage.
She told the Sunday Times: 'I miss him. I miss what we had. I just keep thinking I'm going to be on my own for the rest of my life.'
She said she will never get married again and men were probably frightened of her anyway.
'I wish I was that woman who relied on her husband to do things for her. To buy her things, to cling on to [him] in the way a wife does. I don't think a lot of men like independent women. I just became too strong...
Body confident: Michelle admitted her husband wasn't happy when she did a lingerie shoot two years ago;
'Why did I want to be Michelle Mone? Why did I want to start all these businesses? Why can I never be satisfied with what I've got? Why can't I just chill, become a wife? Be at home? I'm not dissing housewives, but why couldn't that be me? And then maybe I wouldn't have gone through all this heartache.
'I think the business has taken over my life. It is my life.'
The couple founded MJM International with her husband in 1996, launching the first of her cleavage-enhancing Ultimo bras in 1999.
Michelle had read about a new silicone product while on holiday in Florida, and obtained the European licence to make bras from it.
Support: Mone with her good friend Carol Vorderman at the Cheltenham Festival in Gloucestershire last month;
The cracks began to show when Michael objected to his wife posing in her underwear for the £40million brand two years ago after famously shedding six stone.
She revealed it was 'the first time I'd ever gone against my husband'.
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