Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor admits to secret romantic relationship with her assistant

Chelsea‘s head coach Sonia Bompastor has revealed that she has been in a 13-year romantic relationship with her former team-mate and coaching assistant at the women’s side in her new autobiography.

Bompastor arrived at Cobham on a wave of anticipation this summer following the departure of heavily decorated former manager Emma Hayes, bringing with her a strong Champions League-winning pedigree from her stint at Olympique Lyon – and her coaching partner Camille Abily.

Both Bompastor and Abily played together at the French giants during their career before setting up as a managerial team, with Bompastor taking the lead and overseeing glittering stint at Lyon featuring three league titles, the Coupe de France, and a Champions League trophy.

But in her autobiography, A Life of Football, published in France on Wednesday, Bompastor shared that she had achieved her accomplishments with Abily by her side romantically as well as professionally.

The memoir also reveals that the pair share four children together, now aged between three and nine years old.

In an interview with L’Equipe ahead of the book’s publication date, Bompastor admitted that her secret had been ‘a heavy one’ to keep.

Sonia Bompastor (right) and her partner Camille Abily (left) have opened up on their secret 13-year relationship

The Chelsea head coach published the romantic revelation in her autobiography this week

‘Revealing my life together with Camille, our couple, after – as I say in the book – these thirteen years of lying, is still a subject on which today we are not entirely comfortable,’ Bompastor said. ‘We are rather discreet and we like to have a completely normal life.

‘Finally, we realized that having lied for thirteen years is a heavy secret to keep. With hindsight and our different experiences, we say to ourselves that we should have revealed it from the start.’

Abily, who was also interviewed, shared that the decision to keep their relationship discreetly under wraps had something to do with their public profile at the start.

Both Bompastor and Abily featured at Montpellier before moving to Lyon as players, starring in an all-conquering side which took in six league titles.

The couple also represented France internationally, with Bompastor earning 156 and Abily 170 caps respectively.

‘There is modesty, self-acceptance,’ Abily added. ‘Then, we were still two well-known players. We were already associated a lot on a lot of things.

‘These are not subjects that I necessarily like to discuss. I think it’s a self-acceptance already. Everyone around us, our children, know, there’s no problem. But I’m not going to be the first to tell someone who doesn’t know. And yet, we were really lucky, it went really well.’

Both Abily (bottom second left) and Bompastor (bottom far right) played together for France and Olympique Lyon before the move to coaching

Bompastor has hit the ground running at Stamford Bridge with her Blues yet to lose a match

At Chelsea this season, Bompastor and Abily have built upon Chelsea’s legacy of success under Hayes and look to go one step further, with a matchless unbeaten record in all competitions this season and an eye on a maiden Champions League trophy for the Blues.

Bompastor and Abily will challenge for their first trophy in Chelsea’s colours at the start of next month when they play Manchester City in the League Cup final.

But at work, Bompastor stressed, the lines are never blurred.

‘Camille isn’t my wife at work,’ she continued. ‘Camille is my duo, my partner. We know each other very well, we complement each other very well in qualities that as a result, we’re very effective at what we do.’