Manchester United legend Patrice Evra has been hit with a suspended 12-month prison sentence after being found guilty of abandoning his family for over two years.
According to Le Parisien (via Daily Mail), Evra is alleged to owe €969,000 (£813,640) in unpaid alimony after abandoning Sandra Evra and their two children between May 1, 2021 and September 28, 2023. His sentence was confirmed by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office.
The 12-month punishment has been suspended for two years with provisional execution but the former captain of the French national team has been ordered to pay his wife €4,000 (£3,358) for moral damages and €2,000 (£1,679) for legal costs.
The 43-year-old has launched an appeal against the decision, the prosecution has confirmed, with Jerome Boursican, his lawyer, insisting ‘the facts are disputed’ by his client.
“Mr Patrice Evra filed an appeal, knowing that he provided his wife with an apartment, a house with a swimming pool in the south of France and that he lent her almost two million euros for her daily life,” Boursican said.
“A sum that she refuses to return, which is the reason for this trial.’
Evra’s representatives have not yet responded to requests for comment.
Sandra and Evra married in 2007 and share two children, a son, Lenny, and a daughter, Maona. Divorce proceedings were initiated by the now-retired footballer in 2020, however, though they remain uncompleted over four years on.
In July 2020, photos of Evra kissing Danish model Margaux Alexandra, his current partner, were published while he remained married to his wife. Evra and Alexandra are engaged and have since had two children – a young son, Lilas, and a daughter.
Acting on behalf of Sandra, lawyer Nathalie Dubois told Le Parisien: ‘I hope that, thanks to this decision, Patrice Evra will finally understand that he is not above the law and that you cannot abandon your wife and children overnight.
“Even more so when they met when they were 15 and she followed him all over the world to support his football career.”
Evra, who played 379 times for United between 2006 and 2014, was first seen with Alexandra five months after his separation from his wife. He is understood to have ended the 13-year marriage after moving out of the family home in Paris.
Sandra, Evra’s childhood sweetheart after they grew up together in the Parisian suburb of Les Ulis, was said to be heartbroken after he left to work as a pundit for Sky Sports. She reportedly learned of his new relationship through social media.
