Did Kay Longstaff jump ship?

The British woman who survived for 10 hours in the Adriatic on Sunday jumped off the cruise ship on purpose, it has been claimed.

The Sun cites an Italian source who told the paper that the authorities were working on the theory that Kay Longstaff, 46, is likely to have jumped from the boat after a “drunken row” with her boyfriend.

Longstaff originally claimed she had fallen from the seventh storey of the cruise liner, but the Daily Mirror reports that she and her partner were arguing “in the days before she plunged overboard”. She was thought to have been having a “tough time” on board the ship.

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Other tourists holidaying on the ship insisted it would have been “impossible” to accidentally slip over the chest-high railings surrounding the decks, says the paper.

“Officers spoke with the woman’s partner on the ship when it arrived in Venice,” The Sun’s source said. “We have seen the footage and we are happy there was no foul play involved. The partner was released and no one has been placed under official investigation.”

“The footage has been viewed and you can clearly see she was there on her own when she fell. She was not pushed. The theory we are working on is that she most likely jumped.”

The air hostess’s father, Ron Longstaff, said the suggestion that she was struggling through a difficult period was “rubbish” and that he had been “sitting in the sun with her” a few weeks earlier.

The cruise ship was travelling to Venice from the Croatian port of Vargarola when Longstaff fell into the water. She claims that she stayed alive thanks to singing and “yoga fitness”. She was plucked from the water by a rescue vessel.

Following her rescue, Longstaff said she felt “very lucky” to have survived the ordeal and thanked her “wonderful” rescuers.