Tennis star Martina Navratilova had declared herself to be 'cancer free' last month following a year-long battle with the disease, but she could be facing fresh problems, reports Daily Mail, London. Her friendship with 39-year-old former Miss USSR Julia Lemigova could be the cause for her problems, the report said.
Last year, on I'm A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!, 53-year-old Navratilova memorably described Lemigova, a former model, as 'drop-dead beautiful', and just weeks later the pair were photographed on holiday together in the French Riviera wearing rings on their wedding fingers.
But this week in Paris, where Lemigova is based and where Navratilova has been spending significant amounts of time, French police have re-opened an explosive criminal inquiry which centres on Lemigova's tragic past.
At the heart of their investigation is the love child Lemigova gave birth to ten years ago, before she became a lesbian. Maximilien died in deeply suspicious circumstances when he was just five-and-a-half months old.
Now, a decade on, Lemigova is adamant that her little boy was murdered and that his death is connected to that of the baby's father, multi-millionaire French banker Edouard Stern, a close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy and one of Europe's richest men. Stern was shot dead by another lover during a sadomasochistic sex session in 2005.
And while Lemigova's conspiracy theories might sound like something out of a John le Carre novel, they are certainly being taken seriously by French police who re-opened the case this week.
According to one detective who spoke to the Mail, the evidence that officers are sifting through involves numerous other illicit encounters involving members of the highest echelons of French society, including senior political figures.
At the time of the baby's death, when Stern was still alive, the official line given by the authorities was that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a prosecution. With hindsight, it seems clear that evidence was covered up, possibly to protect Stern and his highly influential friends.
Five years after Stern's death, new evidence has come to light, including a previously concealed autopsy report and a note written by the baby's nanny - and police say it is enough to reinvestigate the baby's death.France's ruling elite is said to be dreading the fall-out from what could well be the biggest scandal of Sarkozy's term of office.
For Navratilova, who recently spoke of her desire to get married and who still hasn't ruled out the possibility of adopting a child, the legacy of Lemigova's turbulent love life is undoubtedly casting a shadow over their romance, and possibly making her question the woman she clearly adores.
Lemigova, the daughter of a Soviet army colonel, was the last Miss USSR before the collapse of the Soviet Union and represented her country at the 1991 Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas.
She has lived in Paris since the mid 1990s, moving on from modelling to business, setting up her own beauty company, White Russian, and founding the luxurious Joiya Spa in the city's Rue de la Renaissance. But in 1997, her life changed for ever when she met multi-millionaire banker Stern and embarked on an affair with him.
Stern was estranged from his wife, Beatrice David-Weill, with whom he had three children. He was also, it later transpired, enjoying numerous other illicit liaisons, many of them at sadomasochistic orgies.
Even in a city renowned for its hedonism, sources say that the sex parties were held under conditions of utmost security. Armed secret agents monitored every event to ensure the safety - not to mention the anonymity - of the prominent participants. Lemigova has always insisted that she knew nothing of the darker side of Stern's life.
'I knew absolutely nothing about that side,' she told a French journalist. 'We had a normal relationship based on feelings.
'He had a very childish side to his personality - dreamy, temperamental - but he always knew what he was doing. Everything was calculated.' Lemigova and Stern's baby boy was born into this fabulously wealthy but sinister world in October 1999, but he died at Necker Hospital in Paris on March 10, 2000, while in his father's care.
Officially, the baby was said to have died from natural causes. But the results of a previously concealed autopsy report reveal that his bloodstream contained diazepam.
Even small traces of the drug, which is commonly used to treat adults for depression, can prove fatal to a small child. The medical examination also suggested that the baby had been shaken violently.
According to a legal source who spoke to the Mail this week: 'In short, Miss Lemigova believes someone, somewhere wanted Maximilien killed. He was a happy, healthy baby and Miss Lemigova loved him deeply.
'The fact that his father was a leading member of Paris society involved in a frighteningly risky social scene clearly created huge problems for his powerful friends. This may well have been why the baby was murdered. Miss Lemigova will not rest until she finds out exactly what happened.'
At the top of the list of those French police say they want to interview about Maximilien's death is a Bulgarian nanny, employed by Stern, who had been caring for the baby in the days leading up to his death.
She was apparently employed by Stern for the days when the baby was in his care, and Lemigova only ever knew her by her first name, Maya. After the baby's death she disappeared without trace, but police now say they have recovered a hand-written note in which the young woman confided to friends that she feared for the child's life.
According to a police source: 'Maya first arrived at Miss Lemigova's Paris flat claiming she was from an agency paid for by Stern. The clear implication is that she was a legitimate nurse offering childcare.
The fear now is that she might have been anything but. This is why it is crucial that we now find her.'
Also among those French police want to speak to is Cecile Brossard, the former prostitute who admitted killing 50-year-old Stern during a sadomasochistic bondage session at his Geneva home in March 2005.
He was shot four times while tied to a chair and dressed head-to-toe in a latex body suit. Brossard recently returned to France after serving only five years in a Swiss jail for the killing, which she readily admitted - ensuring a short trial which saved the reputations of many VIPs who might otherwise have been dragged into the scandal.
'If there really was foul play associated with the orgies, including people being killed, then there's a good chance that she will have some insight into what happened,' says one detective. 'Brossard was at many of the sex parties and knows exactly who else was involved.'
At the time of the murder, Swiss investigators also raised suspicions that French government agents had removed 'highly significant' material from Brossard's home in Paris before police searched it.
As well as photographs, this is said to have included address books and phone numbers, as well as private correspondence on computer disks - evidence that might have contained crucial information pertaining to the death of Lemigova's baby.
'Very powerful people viewed Brossard as a whistle blower, and they didn't want any evidence linking her with them,' says the source.
Lemigova herself has met Brossard at least twice: once, in 2004, in a Paris bar and again, in 2005, in the Geneva office of Brossard's lawyers.
On both occasions, she is said to have implored Brossard to provide her with information about her dead baby, but according to the Paris legal source who spoke to the Mail: 'Brossard was frightened and uncooperative. As far as her baby's death is concerned, Julia has been stonewalled wherever she goes.'
Brossard, now aged 40, was released from prison early this month, having served only two-thirds of her eight-and-a-half-year sentence, vowing to remain silent about her life with Stern, giving further credence to theories of an establishment cover-up aimed at protecting the rich and powerful.
Asked to comment on the latest developments in the Stern case, her lawyer Alec Raymond says: 'Out of respect for the memory of Edouard Stern and his family, she has taken the firm decision not to comment on the case, her imprisonment, nor her plans for the future.'
Lemigova, meanwhile, has already provided statements concerning the death of her child to examining lawyers via the Tribunal de Grande Instance - France's superior court - in Paris.
The troubles rising up to haunt her are in stark contrast to recent interviews given by Navratilova, in which she has spoken about her longing to be a mother. 'I could adopt a brother and a sister, or two sisters,' she said.
'There are too many kids out there who want a home. I'll be a good, fun mother.' Over the past year she has spent increasing amounts of time in Paris near Lemigova, even choosing to undergo radiation treatment at the Curie Institute in the French capital in March. She also worked there as a commentator in May and June during the French Open tennis tournament.
'People living in Paris are far less bothered about celebrities than in other cities, so they can relax with each other,' says a source in the French capital who knows both women. But while Navratilova enjoys her Parisian life, Lemigova is still longing for answers.
'As far as Julia is concerned, she has enough emotional pain and anguish to deal with in the case of her murdered baby,' says a source. 'Compared with that, interest in her relationship with Martina causes her no problems at all.'
And while there were reports last year that the couple had become engaged, Navratilova is under no illusions that their relationship - and the rumours that surround it - is anything but ordinary. 'I told you,' she said to a journalist recently, 'it's complicated.'
