Football legend David Ginola is set to become a grandfather – but doesn’t want anything to do with the baby, his daughter sensationally claimed.
Heartbroken Joy Pinquier told how she fears her unborn child will never get to meet the French superstar due to a devastating rift.
Joy, 32, told how the I’m A Celebrity star sent his congratulations after she broke the happy news to him.
But she claims Ginola, 57, cut off all contact after the excited mother-to-be sent an ultrasound image to him in August revealing she was going to have a baby girl.
In an exclusive interview with , she said: ‘I’m so happy to become a mum, but I doubt my dad will get to know my daughter.
‘He stopped replying to my messages. The way he is treating us is not right.’
Joy was born in 1992 after Ginola had an affair with her mother before he had established himself as one of the world’s top footballers.
Her mother Joelle accused Ginola – who is known as much for his easy charm and good looks as his flamboyant playing skills – of keeping his love child hidden for eight years – as he rose to become an international star.
Joelle was forced into suing the millionaire player for child support after he refused to take a series of DNA tests and allegedly dismissed the youngster as ‘an error of my youth.’
After years of denying paternity, the former Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United winger finally acknowledged his love child during an emotional meeting in 2021 in the French city of Marseille, close to where they both live.
Joy told how she wept as the former French international finally admitted he was her father and hugged her before he looked her in the eye and said: ‘Yes, you are a real Ginola.’
But despite promising to meet up again Ginola never got back in contact.
Now Joy has told of her fears that her daughter will become the latest victim of Ginola’s cruel betrayal.
Joy – who lives with her aviation worker partner Yohann, also 32 – is due to give birth in December.
She added: ‘I’m so happy to become a mum, but I am worried about our future.
‘I doubt my dad will get to know my daughter as he doesn’t seem to have any interest in either of us.
‘I would like for them to build a bond, but I can’t force him to do the right thing.
‘I can only be the best mum I can and I am glad my daughter will have a great dad in Yohann.
‘He will be the father figure for our girl that I never had.’
Joy told how she revealed to Ginola in April that she was pregnant.
She said: ‘I sent a WhatsApp message letting him know he is going to be a grandfather.
‘He replied, ‘Congratulations, I’m happy for you and your partner’.
‘But he is still refusing to see me or play a role in my life.
‘He stopped replying to my messages after I sent a picture of the 3D ultrasound – letting him know it’s going to be a little girl – in August.
‘The way he is treating us is not right.
‘I’ve told him that he can deny my existence as much as he wishes, but my child will always have his DNA.
‘I said, ‘My daughter will have the same blood, which flows in all our veins and I will fight for her rights’.
‘I would never deny his existence, so it is very upsetting that he is refusing to do more than send a text message acknowledging her.
‘He’s acting like a casual acquaintance, rather than my dad.’
Ginola was on the books of small-time French club Brest when he met Joy’s mother after ‘sweeping her off her feet’ at a Paris nightclub.
Mum Joelle, who was working as a secretary in the French capital, has told how he insisted he wasn’t married during their four-month relationship.
She said: ‘David was beautiful, beguiling, charming and, I sincerely believed, single.
‘He was young, he never wore a wedding ring in front of me. He always referred to his ‘tiny flat’ back in Brest as if he was a bachelor.
‘He told me that he loved me.’
In fact his wife Coraline was pregnant with her first child at the time.
Joelle told how she discovered the truth the morning after a liaison at her parent’s flat when Ginola appeared ‘agitated’ and in a rush to leave the following morning.
Describing the bombshell moment she said: ‘A girlfriend of mine had also stayed over and asked him jokily, ‘Who are you in such a rush to get back to – your wife?’
‘David slowly turned and stared directly into my eyes before answering, ‘Yes’. Then he pulled out his wedding ring from a trouser pocket and put it back on his finger.
‘I said to him, ‘Is this true?’ He said, ‘It is true. I am sorry’.
‘He told me he was married and that furthermore his wife was expecting a child.
‘I was devastated and so upset that he could have told me so many lies. He left quickly and said he would call me later. He didn’t.’
Two months later Joelle discovered she was pregnant.
She said: ‘The very day he left me was the day that Joy was conceived.’
Unbeknown to Joelle, Ginola had married Coraline in 1991 and she gave birth to their son Andrea, 32, eight months before Joy was born.
Ginola and Coraline also have a daughter Carla, who is now 30 and works as a fashion model.
The couple split up after 25 years of marriage in 2016 before Ginola began a relationship with model girlfriend Maeva Denat, 34, with whom he has a daughter called Ever who is aged six.
Shortly after his fling with Joelle, Ginola hit the big time after he signed for French giant Paris Saint-Germain.
Joelle insists Ginola repeatedly spurned her as she pleaded with him to acknowledge Joy as his child.
Ginola was playing for Aston Villa in 2000 when Joelle publicly revealed she was suing him after she had secretly battled for years to get the star to help pay towards Joy’s upbringing.
In 2011 Ginola was warned he could face jail when he was summoned to court for ‘abandoning his family’ after he allegedly failed to abide by an earlier court ruling ordering him to pay child maintenance of £400 a month.
Ginola had also been ordered to take a DNA test confirming paternity three times but he always refused.
Under French law, he was then automatically declared the father.
Criminal proceedings were dropped after he paid the full amount of £30,000 he owed in child support.
Joelle has told how her football-mad daughter was six when she discovered who her father was.
In an interview in 2000 she said: ‘Joy was absolutely fascinated by football from the age of five. She used to draw pink hearts around pictures of footballers such as Ronaldo.
‘But one day she nearly stopped my heart. She came into the kitchen with a football magazine and said, ‘Mama, look at this man, he looks so nice, who is he?’.
‘I looked at the picture and there was David’s face. Later I had to tell her.
‘I said to her, ‘This beautiful man you have asked about is called David Ginola and it is he who is your Papa. This is something you should know but it is our secret and we must not tell anyone.’
‘She was only young. She looked at me with her eyes as wide as they can go and tears began filling them up. It was one of the hardest moments of my life.’
Joy first saw her father when she was 15 after he asked for a meeting with her lawyer present to see if ‘they looked alike’.
But the star changed his mind at the last minute and the pair only ‘saw each other across a spiral staircase’ outside the office.
Joy’s next close encounter with Ginola came in May 2016, when she was in her early 20’s.
The star, who had recently separated from Coraline, collapsed during a charity football game in the south of France that month.
He had suffered a cardiac arrest and was clinically dead for eight minutes but survived because his friend and fellow footballer Frederic Mendy performed CPR.
Ginola was airlifted to hospital in Monaco where surgeons performed a six-hour quadruple bypass.
Joy drove 136 miles to the hospital from Marseille as soon as she heard the news – but staff refused to let her see him.
It would be another five years before their first proper encounter – where Joy finally met her father for the first time.
The pair had been in contact after Joy contacted Ginola on social media.
Joy said last year: ‘Two years ago I wrote to him through his Instagram account and, much to my surprise, he replied.
‘I gave him my phone number and he called. We must have spoken on the phone for about two hours and after that we started exchanging messages on WhatsApp.
‘One day I saw he was going to Marseille, where I live, to play boules with his friends. I decided to head over to meet him.
‘I sent a text to let him know I was there and, as I walked over, I saw he had a big smile on his face.
‘He looked me up and down and said, ‘Yes, you are a real Ginola.’ I replied, ‘Why did you ever doubt it?’
‘He took me in his arms and embraced me and it was a very special moment.
‘I had tears in my eyes because it was the hug I had always dreamed of having with my dad.
‘We talked for about an hour and it felt like we were connecting.
‘He kept saying we would go to a restaurant to get to know each other better but, 18 months later, I still haven’t seen him.’
Joy said she felt betrayed adding: ‘It’s a horrible thing to say, but I feel like I have been abandoned a second time.’
Ginola – who was capped 17 times by France before retiring in 2002 – continues to work as a commentator in England and France and was one of the biggest stars of the 21st series of I’m a Celebrity, where he finished fourth.
When he left the jungle fans were full of praise for the doting dad after he posted an emotional video on Instagram as he was greeted by daughter Ever then aged three.
In the clip, which was set to the tune of Perry Como’s Magic Moments, the young girl ran up to her father before they embraced.
Ginola – who had spoken movingly on the show of how much he was missing his family – appeared close to tears as he tightly held his daughter before looking into her eyes.
But Joy said of Ginola: ‘I couldn’t understand why he didn’t want to be my dad.
‘A father plays such a hugely important role for a little girl.
‘Anyone that misses that is going to have a hard time and my childhood was tough.
‘I missed my dad and I needed his love and his guidance, but he did not want to take responsibility or own up to his mistake.’