Ex lover opens up about crazy 6 weeks of passion with 'spy' Chapman

London, July 25 (ANI): 'Red spy' Anna Chapman had a fling with a British artist before she ditched him for her future husband Alex.

Anna had a passionate affair with Marcus Read, but broke up with him after meeting Alex Chapman while she and Marcus were on a night out drinking together.

A year later, Anna - who has been deported to Russia after her arrest in New York last month - tied the knot with Alex.

"Anna was feisty, fiery, totally unpredictable - and very sexy. The sex was brilliant, we were getting on great. And then, suddenly, she was off," The Mirror quoted Marcus, as saying.

The 37-year-old added: "She was always a bit mysterious, but I was totally astonished when I heard she was a Russian spy."

Marcus, who makes art and music installations for festivals, first saw Anna in a nightclub in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, in 2001.

He was staying with a friend and Anna was staying with her diplomat father, the erstwhile Russian ambassador to Zimbabwe.

Marcus said: "I'd been in the country for about five weeks, DJ-ing in a club.

"I saw this beautiful girl walking past, looking at me and when she walked past again, I offered her a drink."

The duo chatted for two hours, although Anna wasn't fluent in English.

Nothing happened that night, but Marcus was so smitten by Anna he asked her for her address and called round two days later.

He said: "I arrived at this huge ­palatial ambassador's ­residence. She answered the front door but sent me round the back.

"We sat by the pool and chatted for hours, then shared a really passionate kiss. We swapped numbers and promised to stay in touch as I was flying home the next day."

A couple of weeks after he arrived back in Hove, East Sussex, Anna phoned Marcus saying she'd like to visit him.

Marcus said: "She explained that two witnesses and myself would have to sign a form to formally invite her to the UK, which I was happy to do."

He continued: "I picked her up from the airport a couple of days later. She was wearing a short skirt, a low-cut top and had a huge bottle of whiskey.

"We went back to my place, had a couple of shots and went straight to bed. Although she wasn't too experienced, the sex was great.

"She was very sensual and intimate. I wouldn't say she was dominant, but she definitely played her part and was very willing to experiment."

Over the next few weeks Marcus and Anna lived as a couple, having passionate sex every day.

Marcus said: "I introduced her to all my friends and we went out partying most nights."

Six weeks into her stay, they headed to London for another party.

Marcus said: "We went to a mate's warehouse flat. It was late and I was chatting to friends when I noticed her sitting on the bed with a guy, staring at him and talking really intensely."

The man was Alex Chapman. Anna told Marcus that Alex reminded her of her father, Vasily Kushchenko, said to be a close ally of Russian PM Vladimir Putin.

Marcus said: "When we left the party she just said to me, 'I'm really sorry, but I am obsessed with that guy, he reminds me so much of my father and I can't get him out of my head.'

"After that, she became very distant. I pushed her on it and she started yelling at me, saying, 'You don't buy me anything. In Russia, men buy their women clothes and jewellery'.

"It was obvious she'd decided to move on. She'd found her next bloke and after a week or so she left.

"To be honest, I never expected a long-term relationship. Deep down, I knew she had used me to get an ­introduction to this country and I was happy to go along with it. She was a beautiful girl... what man wouldn't have wanted her on his arm?"

After Anna and Alex broke up in 2005 Marcus met up with her on several occasions, just as friends. Anna was living in a Mayfair flat, but 18 months ago she stopped taking Marcus' calls and he heard no more.

Following her arrest in the US as part of a Russian spy ring, the friend who had signed her UK immigration form with Marcus rang to say he'd been contacted by MI5.

Marcus said: "In hindsight I suppose she was good spy material - she was so mysterious and had the ability to be very secretive and private.

"And she was hugely ambitious. If someone offered her the chance to further herself, she'd have done anything to get it." (ANI)