When Made In Chelsea, an everyday story of posh folk, was attracting peak ratings on E4 a decade ago, one of its main attractions was Spencer Matthews, the show’s resident hard-drinking serial womaniser.
Matthews has admitted since that the stresses and strains of appearing on MIC turned him into an alcoholic.
And like many recovering addicts, he replaced one addiction with another, in his case marathon-running.
But some people seem determined to push the narrative that he’s never managed to shake his weakness for the ladies.
Last week, it was reported that Spencer has developed a friendship with Christine McGuinness, the ex-wife of TV presenter and comedian Paddy.
Spencer and Christine met last year on yes, you guessed it, a reality TV show: the BBC’s Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales.
Spencer Matthews embraces his wife Vogue Williams after completing 30 marathons in as many consecutive days
Last week, it was reported that Spencer is said to have developed a friendship with Christine McGuinness (third from right). They met last year on a reality TV show: the BBC ’s Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales
It involved walking somewhere remote and hilly – sorry, embarking on a ‘spiritual journey’.
Later, they sat side by side on The One Show sofa.
Christine has also adorned Spencer’s Big Fish podcast and revealed she’s celibate, which in the non-podcast world merely translates as: ‘I’m a divorced single mum of three currently mainlining episodes of MAFS.’ (That’s Married at First Sight to the uninitiated.)
TV sofas and podcasts are, you see, a petri dish of opportunity, where mushrooming friendships can leave wives, even glossy, wonderful wives like Vogue Williams – a model, ‘influencer’ and mother of Spencer’s three children, all under the age of seven – feeling threatened. Which she most certainly does.
I’ve never trusted a man who runs marathons. There is the beady-eyed compulsion to get to bed early as they ‘need their sleep’. Obsessing over food. Always checking their state-of-the-art fitness watches, as if it matters. Myopic examination of feet. Oh, and the amount of laundry it generates.
When Spencer finished his 30 marathons in the desert in 30 days, my only thought was, ‘Thank goodness his wife is the face of Fairy Non Bio.’
It turns out this loud, careless, overgrown schoolboy really is in hot water, and it’s a lot nearer boiling point than the 30 degrees recommended on the side of his wife’s washing powder boxes either.
On a podcast earlier this month, Vogue revealed that Spencer only performs 20 per cent of the household chores.
Christine has also adorned Spencer’s Big Fish podcast and revealed she’s celibate, which in the non-podcast world merely translates as: ‘I’m a divorced single mum of three currently mainlining episodes of MAFS.’ (That’s Married at First Sight to the uninitiated.)
I knew it! He runs not just a mile from putting out the bins, but 26 of them.
‘In the nicest way possible, I would say I fix the broken radiator and I do the school run,’ Vogue added. ‘I would say I do 80 per cent. We’ve actually been having a slight little tiff about that this morning, about the stuff that I do.’
She then broke into laughter, adding: ‘I’ve had enough today!’
With that last sentence, I have new-found respect for Vogue. Until now, she had seemed impossibly perfect.
But her realisation her husband is actually a fourth child is devastating, as it is to all of us who have had to deal with sweaty shorts and book the airport car park space.
Because Spencer, I’m coming to realise, is not necessarily the perfect character he would have us believe he is.
The first murmurings that a serpent might have entered the couple’s paradise emerged a couple of years ago when, despite being sober since 2018, Spencer was seen ‘partying’ with Lottie Moss, sister of Kate, at his MIC co-star Jamie Laing’s wedding party in Marbella.
Vogue shrugged off that and every other rumour since. She posted on Instagram last Wednesday that ‘It’s with great sadness that I have to let you know that Spen and I are NOT breaking up! I usually avoid addressing baseless and cruel rumours, but this just keeps coming up.’
But if you conduct your life in the public sphere, build an entire, lucrative brand on being the perfect family, you can’t then complain if a stain seeps into the picture.
Listening to Vogue’s outburst, I think I detect real hurt. Much as people say, well, don’t read X or the comments or the rumours, they seep under the door, like raw sewage.
You realise schadenfreude is rife, even though you know full well you’re public fodder. I endured two attacks last week, one saying I ‘repeat like a bad kebab’; another, on Mumsnet, saying she sat opposite me on a train and ‘it was a real eye opener’.
These comments don’t just ruin your day. In many cases, they can ruin a marriage and a family. Let’s hope Spencer can grow up, dial it down a notch, stop playing the fool and be a real man.
