Actress and model Liz Hurley has dismissed claims she found sex with her former lover, the actor Hugh Grant, "less than adequate" before they ended their 13year relationship, saying he was a "fantastic lover".
The US women's magazine Jane had quoted Hurley as saying that the floppy-haired star of British blockbuster films Four Wed- dings and a Funeral and Notting Hill used to "turn her off" when he switched on the television in bed.
But in an interview in the Sun newspaper yesterday, 35-year-old Hurley - who starred in the two Austin Powers films and models for Estee Lauder - denied she had said anything hurtful about their sex life.
"Hugh Grant is fantastic in bed - he always has been," Hurley, who still shares a house with Grant in London's Chelsea district, told the paper.
"We don't even have a television in our bedroom. [The article] makes me look spiteful and nasty - and I'm not," she continued.
The 39-year-old Grant and Hurley announced in May they had put their 13-year-old romance on hold.
Hurley stole the spotlight from Grant at the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994 when she wore a revealing Versace dress made largely of safety pins.
But she really hit the headlines in the aftermath of his embarrassing arrest in 1995 during an encounter with a Los Angeles prostitute, which prompted a short "cooling off" in the pair's romance.