Glamour model Keeley Hazell‘s ex-boyfriend has relived the moment he pulled back the duvet to find an England footballer asleep in her bed.
The player hiding beneath her bedding was a very drunk Joe Cole – who as well as winning 56 caps for England also played for Chelsea, Liverpool and West Ham.
The extraordinary episode culminated in Hazell’s furious partner repeatedly punching Cole who then climbed out of a window half dressed to get away from him – and was left bloody and bruised with a black eye.
The model turned actress star of shows like Ted Lasso has written a ‘tell-all’ autobiography which she is promoting by releasing excerpts relating racy episodes from her younger days.
The episode with Cole was the most prominent of these, as the Daily Mail reported earlier this week.
But Keeley didn’t tell the full story about what happened, omitting many of the details of that wild night – most notably disguising the identity of that violent ex whom she referred to only by the alias ‘Theo’.
‘Theo’ is actually former amateur footballer and body builder Lloyd Miller – and the Mail can today reveal his much grittier account of what happened in January 2006 when Cole was seen as a key player for England in that summer’s World Cup.
When he dated Keeley, buff Lloyd was playing footballer with Maidstone United as well as being a keen weightlifter and boxer.
Former amateur footballer and body builder Lloyd Miller (pictured) was dating Keeley Hazell back in 2006 at the height of her Page 3 glamour modelling days. Lloyd has recalled the time all those years ago that he found England footballer Joe Cole asleep in Keeley’s bed
Keeley, 38, (pictured), a model turned actress who starred in Ted Lasso, has brought up details of that notorious night when her boyfriend Lloyd threw punches at Cole in her new book
After the incident when Lloyd threw punches and Cole had to escape half dressed out of an bedroom window, the footballer was pictured playing for England in the 2006 World Cup match against Ecuador sporting a black eye (pictured)
Keeley describes how Cole had been partying at the trendy Embassy Club in London’s West End with then Chelsea teammate John Terry and Anton Ferdinand and Bobby Zamora, who both played for West Ham.
She says that by the end of the night Cole had become separated from his friends and was so drunk he could barely stand – so she decided to help him out.
She and a friend bundled Cole into a taxi and took him to her parents’ modest home in southeast London.
She said the drama kicked off at 3.30am when her boyfriend unexpectedly came around to collect his car keys and she told him about her ‘mad’ night out – and that Cole was in her bed, drunk.
Lloyd maintained that he punched the England star because he believed he had groped Keeley during a party at her parents’ home that evening.
At the time, he said: ‘Joe Cole’s hands were all over her. Keeley and I are more than friends and I didn’t like it. Someone had to step in, and I felt I should do it.
‘I was p***ed off. He was being totally disrespectful to Keeley. You know how footballers are. They think they can get away with what they like.
‘I told him to get off and he wouldn’t, so I asked him to leave her alone. The next thing I know he hits me on the back of the head. He threw the first punch, and I did not start the trouble.’
Lloyd admitted to unloading a flurry of punches at Cole in an interview given shortly after the scrap – insisting that he hadn’t started it but had come out the victor.
He said: ‘I got the better of him physically. I overpowered him.
‘There are loads of people saying that Joe Cole was beaten up while minding his own business, but that’s not true.
‘[But] I didn’t beat the hell out of him as people said. I gave him a couple of whacks.’
The former page 3 girl’s version of events in her book insist there was no amorous behaviour towards her by Cole prior to the confrontation, which she could hear from downstairs.
Keely writes: ‘There was the sound of a door opening, then voices.
‘We rushed upstairs to investigate. That’s when I saw Theo on top of JC, throwing punches at JC’s head. JC’s arms flailed, trying to shove Theo off, but Theo kept pinning him down, landing punch after punch.
Lloyd (pictured with his partner Kristy) claimed he punched the England star because he groped Keeley during a party at her parents’ home that evening. At the time, he said: ‘Joe Cole’s hands were all over her’
Former Page 3 girl Keeley’s version of events in her book insist there was no amorous behaviour towards her by Cole prior to the confrontation, which she could hear from downstairs. Keely (pictured) writes: ‘There was the sound of a door opening, then voices’
Keeley wrote that she ‘had no idea’ on how to stop ‘this horror’ but that Cole (pictured in 2009 with his now wife Carly Zucker) miraculously fought back. The next day, a picture of Cole appeared on the front page of a national newspaper with a black eye
Cole (pictured with Carly in 2009) also later spoke about the incident, saying he had feared for his life as he woke in Keeley’s bedroom to find a man hitting him. He said: ‘I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the fella could have killed me’
‘JC was curled into a ball, his hands shielding his head as Theo circled, his fists clenched, waiting for him to get up just to knock him down again. I screamed at Theo to stop, saying he was going to kill him if he wasn’t careful. This wasn’t some scrappy little bar fight; JC’s shirt had been ripped off; he was bruised and bleeding.’
Keeley writes that she ‘had no idea’ on how to stop ‘this horror’ but that Cole miraculously fought back.
She recalls: ‘He hit Theo on the side of the face. Theo swung back and he ducked out of the way. The pair began rumbling around my room and then, at a speed I didn’t know was possible, JC zoomed past Patsy and me, and before any of us had moved he was gone.
‘That is why he was a professional football player, and Theo wasn’t. JC was fast. He was out of the house in only his trousers, and we had no idea how.’
Keeley then asked Lloyd why he attacked Cole to which he replied: ‘Man needs to learn a lesson. You don’t sleep in my girl’s bed… simple as. And with that, he walked out, car key in hand.’
The next day, a picture of Cole appeared on the front page of a national newspaper with a black eye with reports claiming that after making the escape he sprinted to a local cab office, explaining to the cabby what had taken place and asking him to take him home.
Keeley writes: ‘The papers reported that I had a party at my house with the rest of the England football team. I’m not sure why a bunch of millionaires would have travelled all the way to my council estate in Southeast London, when they could have just as easily partied in a hotel suite. But I was no stranger to false narratives.’
Lloyd, who is now aged 39, spoke to the Mail this week after the notorious fight became public news again, saying: ‘I am surprised that she’s spoken about this after all these years. I’m an old man now, I don’t do any social media. I keep myself to myself and focus on my family and running my business.’
Lloyd, who wasn’t paid by the Mail for an interview, was dumped by his celebrity girlfriend soon after and now lives with a new partner and their four daughters in Kent and runs his own building company.
He said: ‘It happened a long time ago, I’m a changed man now. We all change over time, and I have mellowed a lot.
‘A lot went on that night and I’ve no interest in what happened. I’m now a peaceful family man with four children and run my own business.’
‘We are talking about something that happened when I was 19 years old and I’m not that kind of person anymore,’ he added.
Cole also later spoke about the incident, saying he had feared for his life as he woke in Keeley’s bedroom to find a man hitting him.
He said: ‘I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the fella could have killed me.
‘Thinking about it now, I worry that anything could have happened. But the only thing going through my head was I had to get out of there. That was my overriding urge. Just to get out.
‘I was just lucky the window was open – so I could escape.’
Explaining his decision to speak publicly about the incident, Cole said: ‘I didn’t want to because I want to be on the back pages and not the front. But it’s gone too far – so I just want to put it to rest.’
He denied groping or making any sexual advances towards Keeley insisting that after the club he attended a party at her parents’ home and then fell asleep.
His version also differed from both Keeley’s and Lloyd’s in one crucial respect – inisting he was beaten up not by one man but two.
Keeley (pictured in 2006) wrote: ‘The papers reported that I had a party at my house with the rest of the England football team. I’m not sure why a bunch of millionaires would have travelled all the way to my council estate in Southeast London’
Explaining his decision to speak publicly about the incident, Cole (pictured in 2009 with Carly Zucker) said: ‘I didn’t want to because I want to be on the back pages and not the front. But it’s gone too far – so I just want to put it to rest’
Cole said: ‘People must have left and I don’t know what time in the morning it was. But suddenly I was woken up because there was someone jumping on me, hitting me. There were two men.
‘One was jumping on me and the other was right behind me. It was terrifying. My first thought when I woke up and he was on me was to get out of the house.
‘I just wanted to get the fella off me as quick as I could and get out of the house and get home.’
He added: ‘I don’t know who the two men were. I’ve never met the guy who was hitting me and I wouldn’t recognise him now if I saw him. They didn’t say anything to me I had to protect myself, so we ended up scuffling – but I just had to get out of there.’
Cole was selected and played in the 2006 World Cup in Germany with England reaching the quarter finals before losing on penalties to Portugal.
Keeley later said in an interview for the Mail’s Bryony Gordon podcast, The Life of Bryony, that after they split ‘Theo’ then betrayed her in the most humiliating way – by releasing a sex tape into the public domain.
In her book, Keeley referred to her ex-boyfriend as ‘Theo’. In fact Theo is Lloyd Miller (pictured in his younger days), who had a rather less illustrious footballing carrier than Cole, playing for Maidstone United. When his football ambitions failed to materialise, he set up a building firm
Lloyd, who wasn’t paid by the Mail for an interview, was dumped by Keeley shortly after the incident after and now lives with a new partner (pictured) and their four daughters in Kent
She said that relationship changed ‘the course of her life’, with Theo later releasing a sex tape of the couple without her consent.
‘It was my rock bottom’, Hazell said of the video.
‘I always think about the moment when I found out about the tape. I went to the newsagent and bought a copy – I took it outside and threw up.
‘It felt like somebody had hit me with a brick… I knew I could never get back together with that man.’
The tape incident ultimately led Hazell to leave glamour modelling and pursue acting in America.
When we tried to ask Lloyd whether he had leaked a tape, he declined to comment.
