Sir Cliff Richard has put his UK home up for sale and has vowed never to return after it was raided by police, according to his friend, entertainer Cilla Black.
Black told the Mail the singer decided to put his Berkshire apartment on the market in the wake of the raid, which drew criticism as a BBC crew was on hand to film the police activity.
Officers entered the gated estate while Sir Cliff was at another property in Barbados, during an investigation into an alleged assault at a religious event in 1985.
Sir Cliff has strongly denied any wrongdoing and has not been arrested or charged.
Black told the paper: "Cliff told me he's just put the flat on the market. It's the saddest thing for him, but he had to do it. He said he never wants to live there again. It's awful. Cliff is not all right, not at all.
"He doesn't want to go back there because he's worried this is still hanging over him. When the police raided it was an invasion of his privacy. I can't even advise him because - my God - though I've been through a lot, this is outside my experience. He will never, ever go back there again. I don't blame him."
In February, South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable David Crompton revealed the investigation into Sir Cliff, 74, had "increased significantly in size" and involves "more than one allegation".
Sir Cliff said the claims against him were "absurd and untrue" and he had "never, in my life, assaulted anyone".
The singer was interviewed under caution last year by detectives investigating a claim of a sex crime involving a young boy in the 1980s.
The BBC and the force were criticised for striking a deal over live coverage of the raid, which an independent report found had "interfered with his privacy and may well have caused unnecessary distress".
A four-bedroom flat at the Charters estate, in Sunninghill, Ascot, was listed on property website Rightmove for £4.75m on May 17.
It is described as "a magnificent triplex apartment converted from one whole wing of a 1930s Grade II-listed country house" and includes security gates, a library, four bathrooms, a bar and a spa containing a 50ft swimming pool, gym and treatment rooms.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article