EXCLUSIVE: Playboy tycoon has model wife
By Nick Meo In Bombay And Lucy Lawrence In Milan THE MIRROR

Liz Hurley's new man Arun Nayar is married to a beautiful Italian model. And his millionaire father Vinod insisted last night that his playboy son's marriage is still strong.

The news will come as a hammer blow to Liz, who was pictured holding hands and flirting with Arun, a leading Indian socialite, at a fashion show in Paris last week.

But Vinod, who has a textiles and mail order business in Bombay. claimed his son's 7-year marriage to blonde Valentina Pedroni was still holding together.

"Arun is still married to Valentina," he said "There's no question of separation or divorce. He runs around with all sorts of women. He likes a good social life.

"But he's a great guy who has worked hard to build up a business. We're really proud of him."

However, Valentina is now back in her native Milan in northern Italy to be with her neurosurgeon dad Giovanni and her mother Anna Maria.

"Everything has just landed on Valentina," said Giovanni. "Liz Hurley is not famous here. Valentina knew nothing about this until a few days ago and she has gone to the mountains for a break."

Friends say Valentina, who married Arun in a Catholic ceremony in her home city, left Bombay six months ago and has only been back on brief visits.

A friend of Arun's, Shyam Singhania, said: "Of course, these rumours about Arun and Liz Hurley are the talk of Bombay but nobody is really surprised.

"He's a playboy, part of the jet-set. And the kind of guy who is so good-looking and charming he could sweep a film star off her feet."

Another friend, who asked not to be named, added: "Valentina and Arun have been going through a bad patch, but she will be furious at the pictures of him and Liz Hurley. "They're still married after all and nothing infuriates a Latin woman more than being humiliated in public.

"Seeing your husband's photo all over the papers with another woman - and a famous and beautiful woman, at that - is the ultimate slap in the face."

Liz, 37, who was with Arun at the Christian Dior fashion show, told friends he was her boyfriend - her first since her split with millionaire playboy Steve Bing.

The pair are said to have met during a skiing trip to St Moritz.

Arun was educated at £15,000-a-year Millfield School in Somerset before studying physics at Oxford University's Christ Church college.

The apartment he shares with Valentina - a part-time model who has appeared in several upmarket magazines - overlooks the Arabian Sea and is one of Bombay's poshest addresses.

Arun runs his firm, specialising in website design, from an office behind his apartment. Vinod, 56, lives in the same block and, although divorced from Arun's German mum Gunnar, she stays in the city.

Last night columnist and writer Shoba De - dubbed the "Jackie Collins of India" - said Arun and also his brother Niki have made enemies in Bombay.

She added: "They are obnoxious and complete brats."