George Best - Personal Life

Personal Life

During his early years at Old Trafford, Best was a shy teenager who passed his free time in snooker halls. However he later became known for his long hair, good looks and extravagant celebrity lifestyle, and appeared on Top of the Pops in 1965. He opened two nightclubs in Manchester in the late 1960s: Oscar's and Slack Alice's (which later became 42nd Street Nightclub). He also owned fashion boutiques, in partnership with Mike Summerbee of Manchester City.

Best married Angela MacDonald-Janes on 24 January 1978 at Candlelight Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, having met in the United States when Best was playing for the Los Angeles Aztecs. Their son, Calum, was born in 1981, but they separated the following year and divorced in 1986. His niece by marriage is actress Samantha Janus, who is the daughter of Angie MacDonald-Janes' brother.

He married Alex Pursey in 1995 in Kensington and Chelsea, London. They divorced in 2004; they had no children. He is reported to have had two daughters by other women.

In 2004, Alex Best (née Pursey) appeared as a contestant on the reality television programme I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and alleged that Best was violent towards her during their marriage. This issue was, in fact, covered in Best's authorised 1998 biography "Bestie" in which Alex claimed that Best punched her in the face on more than one occasion, something which Best never denied. Earlier in the book it is revealed that he struck another of his girlfriends at least once and was arrested and charged with assault on a waitress, Stevie Sloniecka, in November 1972, when he fractured her nose in Reuben's nightclub, Manchester. He was successfully defended when the case reached court in January 1973 by barrister George Carman QC, a close drinking companion of Best, as acknowledged in his book, Scoring at Half Time.

Frank Evans, a former business partner of Best, claimed in his 2009 book, The Last British Bullfighter, that Carman offered a Manchester gangster "pots of cash" in 1973 to break Best's legs when he discovered that Best had been having an affair with his second wife, Celia. Carman's offer was rejected with the following warning by the gangster: "I don't sort out domestic disputes and I'm not going to harm George . So you can take your money and go somewhere else. But I'll tell you this – if any harm comes to George I'll know who did it and I'll come after you."

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, while at the peak of his career, Best advertised Cookstown Sausages on TV with the phrase "the Best family sausages". In 2007 a memorial plaque was placed outside the pork factory in the County Tyrone town.

Best had a cameo as himself in the 1971 British comedy film Percy. In 1984 Best made a fitness album with Mary Stävin called Shape Up and Dance. A warts-and-all biopic simply entitled Best was released in May 2000, with John Lynch as George Best. Indie rock band The Wedding Present named their first album George Best, and featured Best on the cover wearing his red Manchester United kit. After his death, Brian Kennedy and Peter Corry released a single entitled George Best – A Tribute.

In 2007, GQ magazine named him as one of the 50 most stylish men of the past 50 years.

Best had at least six autobiographies and authorized biographies:

• Bestie (co-written with Joe Lovejoy),
• The Good, The Bad and The Bubbly (with Ross Benson)
• Blessed: The Autobiography (with Roy Collins)
• George Best: A Celebration (Bernie Smith and Maureen Hunt)
• Scoring at Half Time (with Martin Knight).
• Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths (with Harry Harris)