£5m threat over Imran love child

The ex-lover of Imran Khan wrote him a threatening letter weeks before she died demanding £5.5million to help raise their love child, it emerged yesterday.

Millionairess Sita White stated that she wanted justice for their daughter Tyrian, who the legendary Pakistani cricketer refused to acknowledge.

The letter was written in April and was addressed to both Mr Khan - officially named as Tyrian's father in a paternity suit in the US seven years ago - and his then wife Jemima Goldsmith.

It called for him to recognise his obligations as a father and set up a £5.5million trust fund for Tyrian, aged 12.

Miss White, daughter of the late British industrialist Lord White, threatened to tell the media if he did not agree to the terms.

'This is not about me, this is not about revenge, it is about justice for Tyrian,' she wrote. 'Acknowledgement of your obligation and responsibilities is long overdue.

'I am requesting a response within seven days. Should you choose not to respond and agree to these terms, the fall out from media intervention ... will be certain and out of my control.'

But, in a dramatic change of heart, she never sent the letter. She later named her once bitter rival Jemima as Tyrian's guardian, knowing she and Mr Khan were divorcing. The next month, Miss White, 43, died in Beverly Hills of a cancer-related lung embolism.

Mr Khan immediately flew from Pakistan, where he is now a politician, to see Tyrian and told her she was welcome to live with his family in London.

He is supporting a bid by Miss White's sister, Caroline, to become the legal guardian of her niece.

Jemima Khan, daughter of billionaire Sir James Goldsmith, had agreed to Miss White's request to be Tyrian's guardian but felt she should be with her family, reporter Vicky Ward writes in this month's edition of Vanity Fair.