Shane Warne and Liz Hurley are in love
So says the excited UK press, with fresh tabloid reports stating the unlikely pair's relationship is more than a fling.
Following newspaper revelations of their affair, Warne and Hurley separately made public the fact they had split with their respective partners in
Simone Callahan and tycoon Arun Nayar.
"LIZ AND SHANE: WE ARE IN LOVE" said the front-page headline of The Daily Mirror.
"It is more than just a fling," an unnamed source told the London tabloid.
"Liz is really falling for Shane. Shane has a been a real support through the tough time she's had splitting with Arun.
"They have grown very close and there is an intimate bond between them.
"The only thing standing in their way is the geography.
"Shane is mesmerised by Liz. She's the first person he has felt so strongly about since his divorce. They have so much chemistry."
News of the Warne-Hurley romance graced Monday's front pages of the majority of the British dailies from The Sun to the conservative broadsheet The Daily Telegraph.
One of the few papers not to put the story on its front page was The Independent.
But it still grabbed a slice of the action with columnist Matthew Norman suggesting Hurley was acting in the national interest.
"The true explanation, assuming for the moment that the paper's claims are proved accurate, is that Liz was driven by the patriotic instinct to keep Warne in London, and prevent him from returning to Australia to revive that ailing Ashes side," he wrote.
"She did what nicely bred girls routinely did in the age of Empire. She lay back, gawd bless her, and thought of England."
-AAP
