Dave King admits his dealings with Mike Ashley were a 'drain' on him after the former Rangers chairman faced the possibility of spending Christmas behind bars five years ago.
Ashley, who once owned an 8.92% stake in Rangers, previously won a court injunction which prevented the Scottish giants from revealing details of a retail agreement between Sports Direct and the club.
Sports Direct alleged that King breached this injunction during an interview with Sky Sports from his home in Johannesburg.
Mr Justice Smith dismissed Sports Direct's motion that King should be jailed at the High Court in December, 2015 and the judge also went on to throw out a contempt of court charge, but the episode left its mark on the former Rangers chief.
"‘As I look back now, some of the difficult times, if I take the dealings with Mike Ashley and the Sports Direct litigation, that was a drain on me in terms of time and effort and dealing with the litigation," King told the Daily Record.
"I had to get to London when he was trying to put me in jail at Christmas for contempt of court.
"There were a lot of emotional difficulties for me and difficulties with the level of responsibility that I took on because the club really was in a mess and had very little executive support in terms of the management structure within the business.
"A lot of that fell on me. So you had that in addition to the fact that I was making decisions as to what I thought was in the best interest of the club and then had to back that up by finding the money. A lot of times, it had to come from me.
"I was spending a lot of time putting my money where my mouth was, but had to make sure my mouth was in the right place."
