I thought it was irrelevant to the story, and needlessly personal, especially since the story contained enough information to identify the company and CEO. In particular, you say "had an abortion at John's request" as if he forced her, when that's just your interpretation. I can imagine that a lot of women have abortions after the parteners talk about it (sometimes they agree and sometimes they don't, but who's to say who's at fault).
Also, with easy libel laws in the UK, you could be opening yourself up to a lawsuit.
As for whether it explains the firing, not really. You already said the gf was an ex when hiring Ian, so it's hard to really know the sequence of events without adding more sordid details. Plus it's just your speculation about why he wanted Ian gone, and it wouldn't totally explain it anyway (what difference did it make at that point, after the abortion apparently, whether Ian worked for the company or not?).
It was at his request, I met her sometime later and she was geniunely still distraught about it. I also had the chance to hear her side of the story.
You still have a point, I'm opening myself up to libel and I'm not sure it adds much value to the story.
I think John wanted Ian gone because Ian may have just found about it all around that time. I have to speculate because neither John or Ian would tell me much detail about it at the time.
There are some more sordid details to it that I think anyone would be ashamed of. It makes the rest of the story seem tame by comparison, but I left it out because it wasn't really important to the story and would only serve to attack John.
Also, with easy libel laws in the UK, you could be opening yourself up to a lawsuit.
As for whether it explains the firing, not really. You already said the gf was an ex when hiring Ian, so it's hard to really know the sequence of events without adding more sordid details. Plus it's just your speculation about why he wanted Ian gone, and it wouldn't totally explain it anyway (what difference did it make at that point, after the abortion apparently, whether Ian worked for the company or not?).