Tabloid editor held for alleged assault on husband

The future of Rebekah Wade, the editor of UK tabloid The Sun, remained uncertain last night after she spent eight hours in a London police station, arrested for allegedly assaulting her husband, the actor Ross Kemp.

She returned to work afterwards, and is said to have joked to colleagues: "Anything happening today?"Ms Wade, 37, was detained when police were called to the couple's home in south London at 4am yesterday after reports of an assault.

Mr Kemp, 41, who has recently returned to his role at Grant Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, and specialises in "hard man" roles, is said to have refused hospital treatment for a cut lip. He is understood to have been filming yesterday.

His wife was questioned at Battersea police station but Scotland Yard said no further action would be taken against her.

Ms Wade, previously editor of the News of The World, has been editor of The Sun for almost three years, and it has taken a strong line against anti-social behaviour. The Sun has also mounted a long campaign against domestic violence, and has featured men among the victims.

Rupert Murdoch, Ms Wade's boss, is in London for the annual general meeting of BSkyB today. One source reported that he was said to have been in a relatively light-hearted mood, urging staff to "get a good paper out".

Mr Murdoch often waits before removing an editor who has fallen out of favour.

But there was already speculation about Ms Wade's future, with the newspaper's circulation slipping slightly.

The day's events already had Fleet Street agog with lurid rumour, then came news of a most bizarre twist.

The former partner of Steve McFadden, who plays Kemp's on-screen brother, Phil, in EastEnders, was arrested and cautioned for assaulting him.

There was no indication that the events were linked.

Both actors have been reunited in their roles in a three-week, ratings-chasing return of the Mitchell brothers to the soap.

On Wednesday evening, Ms Wade had met to commiserate with David Blunkett, a personal friend, who had resigned earlier as work and pensions secretary.

They had a drink at the Ivy restaurant.

One report suggested Mr Murdoch was present.

After Mr Blunkett returned to the Commons for a 7pm vote, Ms Wade was joined by her husband at the west London home of PR guru Mathew Freud, who is married to Elisabeth Murdoch, the daughter of Ms Wade's boss.

He was throwing a party to celebrate his birthday.

The couple spent the evening there and left, someone who was there said, "very late, long after midnight".

They were said to have travelled in Ms Wade's chauffeur-driven Mercedes.

Scotland Yard confirmed only that officers had been called to an address in Battersea, south London at 4am "in relation to an alleged assault".

But news spread quickly in the media, and was broken to a wider audience on Sky News, also part of Mr Murdoch's News Corporation.

Senior executives are believed to have taken the decision to broadcast the story without consulting him.

Ms Wade was brought up in Cheshire. After grammar school, she studied at the Sorbonne and took her first job on a Parisian architectural magazine. She switched to local newspapers, starting as a secretary at Eddy Shah's Messenger group. After joining the News of the World, she rose swiftly up the hierarchy, becoming editor in 2000.

She made her mark with her controversial campaign to "out" paedophiles after the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne.

At 34, she took over as Sun editor from David Yelland in January 2003. She is the first woman to edit it.

Ms Wade met Kemp at a golf tournament in 1995. They married in 2002 in Las Vegas. The couple are close to members of the Government, and The Sun has been a strong supporter of Tony Blair. That enthusiasm has cooled recently.

Ms Wade, who had been due at the 50th Women of the Year lunch, arrived at The Sun in Wapping, east London, in the afternoon.

She joked that, with Mr Murdoch in town, she had to find a good splash [main story].

"So I gave Ross one," she said.

- INDEPENDENT