Mystery of Oscar and the blonde
By: Staff Reporter
Oscar Pistorius’s family has lashed out at reports the Paralympian flirted online and declared his undying love for a leggy 30-year-old blonde Austrian woman while awaiting trial for killing Reeva Steenkamp.
MailOnline this week reported that a woman, identified as Nina F, struck up a friendship with Pistorius, who called himself “Liam”, when they communicated on WhatsApp and Instagram.
Nina told Germany’s tabloid newspaper Bild she fell in love with Pistorius over the internet, and claimed the Paralympian even told her he wanted to marry her.
They sent each other dozens of photos and talked for hours each day. But she claimed she didn’t realise he was the paralympian even as their “relationship” blossomed.
She suggested flying out to visit the man she called Liam, but said her long-distance love would change the subject each time she mentioned a trip to South Africa.
During their supposed cyberspace romance, Pistorius allegedly used prepaid cellphone cards and switched his cellphone number several times. All the time, Nina F said she didn’t suspect a thing.
It was only on October 14 last year - 10 days before Pistorius was found guilty of killing Reeva in his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day in 2013 - that Nina F said she found out that Liam was, in fact, Pistorius.
He allegedly sent her a message asking: “You don’t know who I am?”
Bild printed the extract of that alleged conversation. It went as follows:
Pistorius: “If I tell you who I really am, you will never talk to me.”
Nina: “I want to know it. NOW.”
Pistorius: “You don’t know who I am?”
Nina: “??”
Pistorius: “Oscar.”
She wrote back: “Yes, cleeeeeear. And now f*** you.”
But she said he continued to send photos to her in the coming weeks, and phoned her twice daily. Soon her feelings for him returned.
On October 21, after receiving a prison term of five years after his trial, Nina F said her cellphone rang and Pistorius was crying on the other end. Pistorius reportedly said she should wait for him, before saying he had to break off contact.
MailOnline reported that Nina even flew out to South Africa to see him while he was under house arrest at his uncle’s home, but was denied access to the fallen sports star.
The spokeswoman for the Pistorius family, Anneliese Burgess, slammed the Nina F reports.
“This is devoid of all truth. We don’t know who this individual is. I must add that this is not the first time that we have had to deal with this kind of tabloid fabrication, and I cannot counter stories that are not based in reality. We reserve our legal rights in this regard.”
Pistorius has had no shortage of romantic trysts with beautiful women.
He was voted among South Africa’s sexiest men at the height of his career, and was as much a socialite as he was a sports hero.
In addition to his relationship with Steenkamp, he was linked to Russian supermodel Anastassia Khozissova, model and cheerleader Melissa Rom, and Cape Town chef Chanelle du Plessis.
All of them are blonde, blue-eyed and gorgeous.
Independent on Saturday