Beauty and the handsome opera hunk in love triangle

Teddy Tahu Rhodes is accused of wrecking a 60-year-old rival's romance.

A tall, handsome New Zealand opera star is at the centre of a love triangle after he stole the violinist girlfriend of a millionaire garage owner.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes, 40, left roses under 27-year-old Caroline Subedi's chair to woo the Nepalese beauty before performances of Scottish Opera's version of Carmen, the Glasgow Sunday Mail in Scotland reports.

Now her heartbroken lover, Eddie McCay, 60, has accused Rhodes of wrecking his three-year romance.

On May 14, Subedi gave Mr McCay, a widower, his 60th birthday card but just two weeks later confessed that she had been seeing Teddy behind his back.

Subedi plans to follow Rhodes back to Australasia after Friday's final performance of Carmen at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre.

Award-winning Rhodes has starred in the Carmen role with Scottish Opera at a run of performances in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and last week he and Subedi openly displayed their relationship among cast members while rehearsing for the first Edinburgh show on Tuesday.

Friends of Lanarkshire businessman Eddie say he was devastated.

"Caroline and Eddie had been together for years, until this 6ft 5in New Zealander came along," said one.

"Teddy is a big name in the world of opera but Eddie is worried that he's just treating Caroline like a groupie.

"Eddie has been told that Caroline is going to Australia with Teddy and he feels that she doesn't know enough about him.

"He travels the world performing in operas but Caroline hasn't known him all that long.

"Teddy was leaving roses for Caroline under her seat in the orchestra pit.

"Some people might think Eddie has a cheek as he's 60 and she's a 27-year-old but he makes no secret of the fact that he loves her.

"They met on Islay in 2002, got together in 2003 and have been with each other ever since."

Subedi plays violin with Scottish Opera's orchestra while baritone Rhodes performs to fans paying up to £55 ($165) a ticket.

He plays "swaggering toreador" Escamillo, who falls in love with peasant girl Carmen, who is stabbed to death by jealous rival Don Jose.

Subedi's relationship with Mr McCay was frowned on by her parents. Her father Dr Nutan Kumar Subedi - a civil engineering lecturer at Dundee University - even banned her from seeing Eddie.

But for the last three years she had been living with the Lanark Tyre & Exhaust Centre boss at his Lanark mansion.

Mr McCay, whose wife died in 1998, declined to comment last night.

Subedi said: "It's a personal matter and not something that I would want to comment on."

- NZPA