BRITAIN: The editor of Britain's best-selling daily newspaper became embroiled in controversy yesterday after being arrested on suspicion of assaulting her soap star husband. Rebekah Wade (37), who recently launched a campaign in her newspaper, the Sun, to stamp out domestic violence, found herself in a police cell in Wandsworth, south London.
Her husband, Ross Kemp (41), who plays the hardman Grant Mitchell in the BBC's EastEnders, called police at 4am yesterday after a row at the couple's south London home.
In a bizarre twist worthy of a scriptwriter for EastEnders, it emerged later that Kemp's onscreen brother, Phil Mitchell, played by Steve McFadden, was also the subject of an alleged assault by his former partner yesterday.
Wade, who became the first woman editor of the Sun early in 2003, had spent the day at work overseeing the story of the resignation of David Blunkett as work and pensions secretary.
Within hours Mr Blunkett was at the Wapping, east London, Sun headquarters, being treated to a consolatory drink with Wade, whom he counts as a friend.
Later in the evening she went with Kemp to a birthday party for Matthew Freud, who is married to Rupert Murdoch's daughter, Elisabeth. Insiders said Kemp and Wade, who met 10 years ago, were "in good form", but some time between the end of the party and their arrival home, a row started.
Sources said it developed quickly and Kemp rang 999 in a fit of anger, which brought police swiftly to their Battersea home.
Officers found Kemp with a thick lip and arrested his wife. After nearly eight hours in custody she was released without charge shortly before midday after officers had spoken to Kemp.
Scotland Yard would only say that a woman was arrested at 4am for alleged assault after officers were called to a house in south London.