Professor Neil Ferguson, who advised Prime Minister Boris Johnson to lock down the UK due to coronavirus, has left his role as a government adviser.
This is because he broke the rules of social distancing to meet his girlfriend, who is married to someone else with whom he also has children.
The 51-year-old scientist allowed his girlfriend to visit him at home during the lockdown while he lectured the public about the need to maintain social distancing to stop the spread of coronavirus.
According to the British newspaper Daily Telegraph, 38-year-old Antonia Staats lives with her husband and their children in a house worth 1.9 million pounds.
Ferguson led the group of scientists at Imperial College London whose predictions helped convince ministers of the need to impose strict physical distancing rules, or risk “bombarding” hospitals. But, despite his advice, Prof Ferguson failed to implement it himself.
Just last week he warned that if the lockdown was lifted too early it could risk the deaths of 100,000 more.
And according to British media, on at least two occasions, Ms. Staats traveled to London to meet him.
Her first visit, on March 30, coincided with a public warning from Prof Ferguson that lockdown measures should remain in place until June.
And on April 8, she made a second trip, despite telling her friends that her husband had coronavirus symptoms.
After the whole story was published in the media, Ferguson was forced to resign. He admitted that he had made a "wrong judgment and that he had followed the wrong path."
He told the Telegraph: "Therefore, I have withdrawn from my involvement with Sage (the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies). I acted on the belief that I was immune, having tested positive for coronavirus and having fully isolated myself for almost two weeks after developing symptoms."
