| Red Moon |
24-11-2008 08:09 AM |
Gordon Ramsay\'s \'grovelling apology\' as he admits to meeting alleged mistress four times (updated)
Quote:
Gordon Ramsay's 'seven-year affair': TV chef who fostered a family image is accused of adultery Gordon Ramsay has refused to comment on claims that he has been having an affair for seven years.
The celebrity chef, who markets himself as a devoted family man, is accused of a series of trysts with 'professional mistress' Sarah Symonds.
Four days ago, she and Ramsay allegedly met at a London hotel after Miss Symonds purchased three bottles of legal sex drugs.
The claims were made in the News of the World, which says the affair has been going on since 2001.
On Sunday the Daily Mail learnt that Miss Symonds, author of a handbook for mistresses, contacted publicist Max Clifford earlier this year as she wanted to launch a television career for herself. He is not representing her.
Ramsay, who is worth £60million, has cultivated a reputation as a fiery chef extraordinaire, loving father and devoted husband rolled into one.
He and his wife Tana, 33, put on a show of unity on Sunday by posing in front of their £3.5million London home.
However, the newspaper investigation suggests that as recently as Thursday evening, Ramsay, 42, met Miss Symonds, 38, at the Marriott Hotel off London's Grosvenor Square.
The hotel adjoins one of the chef's most popular restaurants, Maze.
Miss Symonds, who had a yearlong affair with former Tory MP and author Jeffrey Archer, caught a train to London from Newport, South Wales, and took a cab to the five-star hotel.
According to the newspaper, she checked into a £360-a-night room on the first floor.
At around 4.30pm, she left the hotel again and travelled to Soho where she is said to have spent ten minutes browsing a sex shop called Simply Pleasure.
She spent £10 on three small bottles of amyl nitrate, branded Rave and Rush.
Known as 'poppers', amyl nitrate is said to heighten sexual pleasure by relaxing muscles and increasing the heart rate.
She then visited another store where she bought two bottles of white wine and some crisps, before returning to the hotel.
Just before 8pm, Ramsay is said to have arrived at Maze and spent a few minutes chatting to staff before making his way through to the hotel and up to the first floor.
According to the paper he then walked up and down the corridor before knocking on Miss Symonds' door and going in at almost 8.15pm.
The pair remained in the room for just over an hour and a quarter. The News of the World says it was told: 'They had sex.'
A chauffeur-driven silver BMW 7-series is said to have been waiting outside for Ramsay. When it flashed its hazard lights, the chef left through the restaurant's front door and got in the back.
The pair are also said to have met a week earlier in a Mayfair apartment.
Ramsay is thought to have met Miss Symonds in 2001 at London's Chinawhite nightclub, just a few months after she revealed her affair with Jeffrey Archer. A source told the newspaper: 'Ramsay and Sarah exchanged phone numbers and became lovers just a few weeks later. So much for him being true to his wife.'
The pair are said to have met for secret sex sessions in both London and Los Angeles, after Miss Symonds moved there in 2003.
The affair came to a halt in 2004 but started up again after Ramsay took his family to LA on holiday in August 2007, it is claimed.
During the trip, he is said to have contacted Miss Symonds and promised he would get in touch properly when he was back in the area without his family.
'He was true to his word, and called Sarah about three months later when he was in LA filming Hell's Kitchen on his own, and they rekindled their affair,' the source is quoted as saying.
In October 2007, Miss Symonds wrote a book titled Having an Affair? A Handbook for the Other Woman. It made such an impact that she was invited to talk on The Oprah Winfrey show.
Last night Max Clifford confirmed she had come to him for advice earlier this year, keen to launch a television career on the back of her book.
He said: 'She was talking about getting herself a television profile in much the same way as Rebecca Loos (former personal assistant to David Beckham).
'She's articulate and intelligent and she's got it all worked out - she realised that this was her opportunity to launch herself like other people that have launched themselves out of scandals.'
Ramsay, the highest-earning chef in the world, married Tana 12 years ago and the couple have four children under nine - Megan, nine, twins Jack and Holly, and Tilly.
He frequently talks about his love for his wife. In one interview, he said: 'Tana is my wife, my lover and the person I want in my bed and in my arms every night.'
He was voted Celebrity Father Of The Year in 2006 and in 2007 the Ramsays were named Celebrity Family of the Year.
Ramsay, whose brother Ronnie is a heroin addict, also takes a fierce anti-drugs stance.
On Sunday, he agreed to pose for photographs with his wife but refused to answer questions.
Arriving at their family home in Wandsworth Common, South-West London, in a chauffeur-driven silver Mercedes saloon, he and Tana smiled and posed arm-in-arm for photographers.
Ramsay said: 'It's time for Sunday lunch. I'm starving.'
His spokesman Gary Farrow also declined to comment on the story, saying: 'We are not saying anything at all, we are just getting on with it - me, him, Tana, we are all getting on with it.'
Miss Symonds, who could not be contacted on Sunday, told the News of the World: 'Sorry, I've got nothing to say on the matter.'
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Source: Daily Mail |
