(dailymail.co.uk ) - As Kylie Minogue's rocky relationship with Olivier Martinez continues to be dogged by rumours and speculation, the stunning actress blamed for breaking up their relationship speaks out for the first time.
Kylie is said to be a control freak and workaholic, obsessed with starting a family, while Olivier stands accused of infidelity after being photographed with other women.
Now, after a series of heart-to-heart meetings, their four-year romance is back on track, with the singer determined to spend a 'glorious summer' with Martinez - after which, she has told him: 'Propose or it's over'.
It is a reconciliation that would have been thought impossible in February, when the pair seemed to have split for good, the final straw apparently coming when actor Martinez was photographed with stunning Israeli-born actress, model and artist Sarai Givati.
Since then, 25-year-old Givati has maintained a dignified silence - but now she has finally decided to speak out to defend herself from blame.
'I didn't want to talk about this for so long, but I feel enough time has passed to set the record straight,' she says from her Hollywood home. 'I was shocked at the impact this whole episode had on me and sad that I was blamed for the split.
'No one can steal someone else - people aren't suitcases. This mistake has haunted me for a long time. I didn't steal anyone's man and to be labelled as the girl who caused the break-up just isn't fair.'
It is easy to see why 41-year-old Martinez should have fallen for Sarai, who has appeared in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Five-foot-seven with huge green eyes and honey-coloured hair, she manages to be both voluptuous and slim at the same time.
She pads about in a raspberry-coloured dress, exuding a bohemian glamour that's a far cry from Kylie's more reined-in persona. 'I'm a free spirit,' she says. 'Olivier and I are very similar We live in the moment and make no plans, and I think that's why we got on so well.
'We had a relationship, but there was no lying on his part. To my knowledge - and I believe him - there was no overlap between him seeing Kylie and then seeing me. I started seeing Olivier after he had split from Kylie and there was no reason to believe otherwise.
'Looking back now, because of all the hurtful things said about me, I would maybe have wanted more time between the end of their relationship and the beginning of ours because it wasn't easy for me having people think that I split them up.'
Being painted as the 'other woman' was even more difficult because of the key role Martinez played in helping Kylie through her treatment after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2005.
The singer, who was given the all-clear in January last year, even chose to have her six-month chemotherapy course in Paris so she could share the actor's home. Martinez was constantly at her side, and at the time vowed: 'I'm so proud of Kylie, and will always be by her side. I love her so much.'
However Sarai insists she did not come between Kylie and Martinez. Their relationship became sexual - although she prefers the term 'romantic' - in the last week of January, just days before Kylie and Martinez announced their split.
The timing suggests there may have been an overlap - 'but I don't think there was', says Sarai.
'Everyone assumed we were seeing each other when we were photographed together in Paris last November, but we were just friends then. We were both in relationships at the time so we felt it was OK to be with other friends because you know there's nothing going on.
'Also, Olivier is well-known in Paris, so if we'd been trying to keep something secret, it would have been impossible. It's not like we were in a Third World country or anything.'
Her explanation is at odds with the description of their weekend in Paris given by observers.
Martinez was seen wrapping his scarf around her neck as they toured the Musee D'Orsay art museum. They pressed their heads together as they left the building, and were spotted laughing together as they walked through Paris.
Sarai, who has not spoken to Martinez for two months, can seem naive at best; woefully unquestioning at worst.
Within days of their romance blossoming, Martinez was spotted dining with Lost star Michelle Rodriguez and in a lingering embrace with actress Penelope Cruz.
Although everyone claimed innocence, it was curious behaviour for a man who had just embarked on a relationship with Sarai after separating from his long-term girlfriend.
Sarai was introduced to Martinez - whose film credits include Taking Lives opposite Angelina Jolie and, pertinently, Unfaithful with Richard Gere - in Los Angeles last October.
At the time, Sarai was still with her former boyfriend, an American actor and dancer whom she refuses to name.
'Olivier and I both knew we were seeing other people,' she says. 'I talked about my boyfriend and Olivier talked about his girlfriend. I didn't realise his girlfriend was Kylie Minogue until December when I read it in the paper - then I thought, "Oh, I love Kylie, I have her CDs and she's got a great voice".
'I didn't ever question him about his relationship as I was already involved with someone else. I recognised Olivier from the movies, though, and I thought he was confident, charismatic and handsome and when you know a person has a lot to say, you just want to keep talking to them. We're both half-Moroccan and artistic, so had a lot in common and had a lot to talk about.'
The couple exchanged phone numbers and kept in regular contact. At the end of November, Sarai travelled to Paris and spent some time with Martinez.
'It wasn't a romantic rendezvous at all,' she says. 'I saw not only him but mutual friends. We did all the normal things that friends do: went to museums and had dinner.
'I was quoted as saying that we spent "three wonderful days and nights together", but that never came from my mouth. I didn't stay with Olivier, but in a hotel.'
Martinez also introduced Sarai to his family, 'but not in a meet-the-parents kind of way'. She says: 'I won't say which members of his family I met as it's private to them, but let's just say it was friends and family. It was a very natural, casual thing - not a big deal at all.'
By the beginning of December, Sarai had obviously felt enough of a connection with Martinez to break off her five-month relationship with her boyfriend.
'But Olivier wasn't the cause of the split,' she insists. 'My problems in the relationship came some time before then.'
Sarai spent December in Israel with her family, while Kylie and Martinez spent Christmas together in Paris before travelling to London as a couple for Kylie's New Year's Eve concert at Wembley Arena.
The actor stood by the side of the stage during the performance, and the couple spent a few more days together in London.
It was the last time he was seen in public until January 25, but he appeared to have left Kylie to her own devices by January 8.
Sarai says: 'I returned to LA in January. Olivier returned later. When we first met up again after Christmas, I told him I was single and he replied, "Me too".
'I think that when we both realised we were single, there was that immediate sense that something was going to happen.
'He also said he was moving to LA, which I had no idea he was going to do, and when I asked him why he had split from Kylie, all he said was, "It was time to break up" and that the relationship had run its course.
'He had too much respect for her to talk about their relationship and I'm just not the kind of person to ask too much."
Sarai says she and Martinez didn't sleep together immediately: 'But in the last week of January, we did and then our relationship grew pretty quickly.'
On January 25, Sarai was seen meeting Martinez at his suite at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles. Observers said she spent an hour and a half in his room.
But the next night Martinez was seen having dinner with Michelle Rodriguez and the actress was reported to have spent the night in his room.
Whatever the truth behind that, Sarai is full of praise for Martinez: 'What they say about French lovers is all true. He was very affectionate; very caring and warm and he also savoured the time when we did nothing, which I thought was lovely.
'We spent a lot of time talking and he would pay me compliments and sometimes say to me, "You look pretty", but I wouldn't say he was a particularly verbal person. 'He did compliment me on my work and on my paintings and on my art, telling me how talented and smart I was, and if you want to get to me, that's the way to do it. He was a very considerate lover, though, and very passionate and romantic.'
However, Sarai soon found things tougher once news broke that Martinez and Kylie had split.
'When I started reading all the stuff about Olivier two-timing Kylie with me, I didn't take it seriously,' she says. 'But it did upset me to have that said about me.
'I told Olivier that it was hard to be blamed for all this stuff. He said, "Don't worry, you're not doing anything wrong. It'll go away."
'It was hurtful to my family to have to have to deal with the drama, but I explained I wasn't doing anything wrong and they stood by me.
'But it was hard because I had to change my schedules to get away from the Press, and I had to be careful to look nice and not look like a bum when the photographers were around. But I never doubted that Olivier was being honest with me.'
The couple carried on seeing each other every few days, and despite the whiff of infidelity that Martinez always seemed to bring with him, Sarai says: 'I was being faithful and I assumed he was too.
'To my knowledge he didn't see other women and if he was photographed with them...well, he's allowed to have friends.
'I don't know how much I believe in marriage but I believe in monogamy and I definitely don't believe in open relationships.'
But by March 24, Martinez had hooked up with 37-year-old Spanish actress Goya Toldeo, a friend of Penelope Cruz, and they were soon seen having dinner together and walking hand in hand through Madrid. Sarai and Martinez officially broke up in April, after less than four months together.
She says: 'Endings are never fun and this one wasn't easy either.
'I had to go to Israel for work and then on to Europe and I didn't want to keep a long-distance relationship going.
'We talked about it and with our tight schedules, I knew it wasn't going to work. We both had other priorities and I wasn't looking to give up my work.
'Our age difference didn't help either. As you get older, you're more centred and grounded but I'm careless and irresponsible and a free spirit and I'm young - I want to stay that way for a while.
'Was I in love with him? Well, we only saw each other for a few months and I take that word very seriously, so no, I wouldn't say so. But we definitely had a deep connection.'
Sarai hasn't seen Martinez since they broke up, but says: 'We're on great terms and I like him a lot and think he's a great and inspiring man.'
How does she feel that her ex-lover might finally marry 39-year-old Kylie?
'Well, I would be happy for him, of course. I'm friends with 99 per cent of my ex-boyfriends, so there is no resentment there at all.
'Olivier has had long-term relationships, so I'm sure he's the marrying kind and I think one day he'll be a great father.
'We didn't talk about Kylie out of respect, but he did say she's an amazing woman and I would have to agree with him.
'But Olivier and I are still on great terms and I wouldn't be surprised if our paths crossed and we saw each other again.'