Nicola Sturgeon has said the need to seek more privacy in the wake of internet rumours was “part of the reason” for her resignation as leader of the Scottish National party. The former first minister stepped down in February, saying she was clear “in my head and in my heart” that it was the right time to go as she was drained by the unrelenting and unforgiving pressures of modern politics. Now Sturgeon, who has been the subject of a series of lurid and unfounded rumours about her personal life that have circulated on the internet in recent years, has told a new BBC Scotland podcast that online gossip about her was “part of the reason” behind the decision. “I’m not naive, I’m not of the view that I will step down one day and be completely anonymous the next day, I understand the realities of what I have done and I’ll still be in parliament, but I want to have a bit more privacy,” she said. “I want to have a bit more anonymity and I just want to protect some of what people take for granted in their lives that I’ve forgotten to have.” Among the claims she laughed off in the podcast were that she was a “secret lesbian” and had an extramarital relationship with a female French diplomat with the pair buying a house from tennis star Andy Murray’s mother, Judy, as a love nest. Other rumours spread about Sturgeon said she had a global property portfolio and had a super-injunction in place to hide the truth. “I read accounts of my life on social media and I think, you know, it is so much more glamorous sounding and so much more exciting,” she said. Sturgeon,NEW who is also thought to have stood down after eight years in post because she had run out of options for a second referendum on Scottish independence,/NEW was replaced as first minister last week by Humza Yousaf.