Nicola Sturgeon addressed the saga after Peter Murrell, 61, who she announced her divorce from in January 2025, pleaded guilty to embezzling over £400,000 from the SNP
Nicola Sturgeon held back tears as she discussed a gift given to her by her estranged husband who pleaded guilty to embezzling over £400,000 from the SNP.
The ex-Scottish First Minister said she felt like she is “serving a sentence from a crime I did not commit” and said she would not apologise for Peter Murrell’s actions. Ms Sturgeon addressed the saga after Murrell, 61, who she announced her divorce from in January 2025, pleaded guilty to embezzling over £400,000 last week.
The ex-SNP chief executive between 2001 and 2023 spent the money on a bizarre array of items including a motorhome, cars, kitchen gadgets, expensive watches and pens. He also made some lower-end items purchases, including £2.50 Neutrogena hand cream, staples for £4 and Chinese takeaway curry sauce paste for £12. He also splashed out on a £67 toilet seat, according to a 125-page list.
Ms Sturgeon, who announced her divorce from Murrell in January 2025, told BBC Laura Kuenssberg show this weekend: “I am not responsible for the crimes that my former husband committed and I’m not going to apologise for somebody else’s crimes.”
She added: “For my own sake, but for the sake of people out there, a lot of women who end up finding themselves blamed for the actions of the men in their lives, I’m not going to contribute to that kind of sense that I am responsible for somebody else’s crimes.
“I will take responsibility for the things I do, the decisions I make. I’m sitting here with you right now, answering questions because I believe strongly in that accountability.
“But I am not responsible for the crimes that my former husband committed and I’m not going to apologise for somebody else’s crimes.”
The former SNP leader was close to tears as she discussed a £400 Shetland necklace bought to her by her estranged husband using embezzled funds.
She said: “I’d been campaigning a lot in Shetland and we went to visit, as part of the campaign, we went to visit this amazing business, the Shetlands jewellers, and I was being shown around the shop and I stopped at this pendant.
“I mean, you’ve seen pictures of it, it’s beautiful. Later that night, Peter said to me, I’ve got a surprise for you. And I saw you admiring this pendant and gave me it.”
Ms Sturgeon went on: “Sorry. I loved that necklace and I wore it a lot. And this is the other thing. The idea that I would have gone about wearing things that I had known were anything other than what they were presented as, a gift from my husband… to then find out that these were gifts given to me that he’d bought with the party’s money causes a level of, I don’t know, pain, bewilderment.
“I don’t know, I just… I’m not sure. I’m going to try. I am just not sure I will ever properly come to terms with that.”
The former Scottish First Minister also said that angry does not even begin to cover how she feels about her estranged husband. She said: “Am I angry with him? I don’t even think that begins to cover it.
“Because not only has he lied to me and betrayed me – and if this was an entirely private thing, that would be bad enough – I mean, I’ve been genuinely touched this week by some of the messages I’ve had by women who’ve been betrayed by their husbands, lied to by their husbands, not in identical circumstances, although some in, you know, not dissimilar circumstances, and speaking to me about the, just the depth of hurt they feel, and I feel all of that.
“But it’s more than that. He has put me into a position of real peril, he has subjected me to public vilification, having the finger of suspicion pointed at me – you know, humiliation.”