A BRITISH grandad accused of trying to drown his daughter-in-law pleaded with cops that he is not in a relationship with her, The Sun can reveal.

Family sources claim Mark Gibbon, 62, has secretly been dating Jasmine Wyld – the mother of his grandchildren – for years.

He was arrested last week and charged with attempted murder after allegedly forcing her head underwater at a Florida resort pool during a row over his will.

But despite reports of a love affair, both Gibbon and Wyld, 33, denied to cops they were a couple.

Polk County Sheriff’s Office told The Sun the pair had been quizzed on the status of their relationship.

A detective asked Gibbon and mum-of-two Wyld “about their relationship to determine if the incident would be classified as domestic violence”.

They both denied being in a romantic relationship, however.

It comes after a family source told the Daily Mail how the pair had grown close after Gibbon split from his partner and Wyld split from his son Alex.

The insider claimed: “Mark and Jasmine have been seeing each other for a few years, but they’ve never admitted it.

“[The couple] do an awful lot together and they go away on holiday with the children a couple of times every year.”

Gibbon is divorced from his wife and lives alone at a £800,000 semi-detached home in Beaconsfield he purchased in 2023.

Wyld – a hairdresser – separated from Gibbon’s son Alex, 34, in 2021.

They share two young children together.

Just two years after they separated, Alex, 34, was jailed for trying to run over his dad in a £80,000 Porsche Cayenne in Beaconsfield, Bucks.

As well as assaulting his father, Alex also pleaded guilty to harassing ex-wife Wyld.

Alex was sentenced at Aylesbury Crown Court to 25 months in jail, a 36-month disqualification from driving, a five-year restraining order, plus a surcharge.

The dad was released from jail around six months ago and went to move in with his mum, who had divorced Gibbon some years earlier.

Alex and his father also became embroiled in a public row in 2023 after Alex left his dad’s business for an unknown reason.

The family source confirmed that Alex and Gibbon no longer speak.

They added: “He feels an awful betrayal at how his dad has struck up a relationship with the mother of his two children.”

Gibbon – a lighting technician, who runs his own firm called MRG Lighting – is now being held in Polk County Jail and is due in court next week over the attempted murder charge levelled against him.

He and Wyld were on holiday at the Solterra Resort in Devenport, near Disney World, Florida, with Wyld’s two children – Gibbon’s grandkids.

The reported couple started arguing over the “stipulations of his wilL” while by the pool, according to US police.

Gibbon then pushed Wyld’s head “under the water and held her down multiple times”, the arrest affidavit claims.

The mum told cops she “could not breathe and believed that she was going to drown”.

Police say Wyld was forced to “fight Mark in order to get away from him and from under the water but he kept pushing her back under”.

Her nine-year-old daughter then leapt to her mother’s defence but was pushed away by Gibbon, it is claimed.

Wyld is reported to have called out to two women in the distance and screamed at them to call 911.

Gibbon now faces one count of attempted murder and two counts of battery.

When questioned, Gibbon allegedly admitted to pushing Jasmine underwater, but insisted he hadn’t been trying to drown her.

The grandad is due in court on Monday.