How could Helen Skelton's husband betray her so brutally? Asks Platell

2022-10-14

PLATELL’S PEOPLE: How could Helen Skelton’s husband betray her so brutally?

As anyone who has ever lost in love knows, breaking up is hard to do.

This was only too clear when an apparently blind-sided Helen Skelton announced in April that she was ‘very sad to say’ she and her husband of eight years, Richie Myler were ‘no longer a couple’.

The Countryfile star — and now glamorous Strictly contestant — said pointedly that ‘he had left the family home’. And while she added they would be ‘doing their best to co-parent our small children’, the reality is she will be raising their two toddler sons and newborn daughter as a single mum.

The clue in Helen’s statement was that ‘he had left’. No one else was involved, of course — which is what men often say to women when they dump them for someone else.

AMANDA PLATELL: As anyone who has ever lost in love knows, breaking up is hard to do

It now transpires that professional rugby league player Richie took up almost immediately with Stephanie Thirkill, the daughter of the millionaire president of the Leeds Rhinos, who he happens to play for.

Marriages end, people fall out of love. I pass no judgment other than to say it is a particular kind of man who leaves his wife and three young children when their youngest is just four months old. Hardly the behaviour of a gentleman.

But imagine how Helen must have felt on learning that her husband — they’re still married — had found love again weeks after he left her.

Think how hurt she must have been when, on top of this devastating discovery, she heard he is now looking forward to a baby with his new paramour. Poor Helen has been brutally betrayed. So have their three kids, and at such a young age.

He’s left the home they grew up in as a happy family — shattering their dreams, their joy and their hopes for the future. As for pregnant Stephanie, does she feel any guilt about moving in with a married father?

How does she sleep at night knowing those children are upset because Dad’s not at home? Is her happiness really worth their pain?

Helen is determined to find her feet again. And in Strictly she’s more than shown she can do it.

That’s why, in an act of sisterhood, all my friends and I will be voting for her as she dances on the show tonight. No one should be treated so cruelly.

I’m not sure about Zara Phillips’s husband Mike Tindall joining I’m A Celeb. It is a poisoned chalice. If he doesn’t say anything juicy about the royals while munching on kangaroo testicles, he’ll be booted off; if he does, he’ll be betraying the Queen. Does he really want to be seen as a royal blood-sucker like Fergie?

Creators of the Channel 4 film about the Wagatha Christie trial missed a trick casting elegant Chanel Cresswell as Coleen Rooney and Natalia Tena as hatchet-faced Rebekah Vardy.

Surely Coleen should have been played by EastEnders’ no nonsense toughie Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace), Beks by Corrie’s Shona Platt (Julia Goulding) and Wayne Rooney by James Corden . . . in a fat suit.

Creators of the Channel 4 film about the Wagatha Christie trial missed a trick casting elegant Chanel Cresswell as Coleen Rooney

What makes us sick when the Just Stop Oil eco-nutters block London is not only the disruption but the fact it took six cops to not arrest eight protesters on one demo — when Met boss Sir Mark Rowley says he doesn’t have enough officers to attend even serious burglaries. Oh, for the days when eco-warriors were flea-ridden, jobless and just sniffed the glue instead of sticking themselves to the road.

Jamie Oliver pops up in the prime spot on Radio 4’s Today programme, demanding all children whose families get Universal Credit should be given free school dinners. A campaign that would have been perhaps more laudable if Jamie wasn’t also flogging his new book One: Simple One-Pan Wonders ready for the lucrative Christmas market.

Jamie Oliver pops up in the prime spot on Radio 4’s Today programme, demanding all children whose families get Universal Credit should be given free school dinners

Westminster wars

When the King greeted the PM for their weekly audience with the words ‘back again, dear, oh dear’ it was interpreted as him commenting on her troubles. Unlikely, as Charles knows the drill. More likely he’s inherited his father ’s love of the wry joke — and it went awry!

For the Tory traitors, a word of warning. With the worst poll ratings in memory, if a General Election were held only a third of them would keep their seats. Worth pondering as the assassins sharpen their knives.

During the brief and frankly unconvincing press conference desperately trying to save her premiership, Liz was still wearing her signature talisman necklace. Time to ditch it, honey, the magic is clearly not working.

The PM says her new Chancellor shared her vision for ‘growth’. Indeed, in his almost-six years as Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt set in place reforms that have led to a record 7 million people waiting for treatment on the NHS. It’s growth, Jeremy, but not as we want it.

During the brief and frankly unconvincing press conference desperately trying to save her premiership, Liz was still wearing her signature talisman necklace

Proof that Netflix’s The Crown distorts the truth comes with news that the fit, sexy Pakistani actor Humayun Saeed is to play Diana’s great love, heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.

When news leaked of their romance, the first picture to emerge of the doctor showed a scruffy, podgy figure wearing a stained T-shirt and carrying a carrier bag.

I’m all for romantic licence, but this is like having Sharon Stone playing me in a biopic.

No pause on menopause

The Parliamentary Group on Menopause (yes, there is one) wants a mandatory health check for every woman over 45 with their GP to discuss their options for ‘the change’. Jolly good, but you can hardly turn on the radio now without hearing about the menopause, or the high priestess of hot flushes Davina McCall moaning on about it. Talk about sweating a subject!

Some might think EastEnders’ plans for a Dot Cotton funeral this winter are a bit creepy given that the actress June Brown died in April. But if it’s half as beautiful as the final send off in Peaky Blinders for Helen McCrory, who played matriarch Polly Gray until her death, there will not be a dry eye in the house.

Holly and Phil have the last laugh

Despite 75,000 embittered folk signing a petition calling for This Morning’s Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield to be sacked after Queuegate — when they were accused of queue-jumping at the Queen’s lying-in-state — their viewers had the final say, voting for them to bag the award for best daytime show at the National TV Awards. A few boos aside, in the end, it’s the court of public opinion that wins.

Holly and Phil’s viewers had the final say, voting for them to bag the award for best daytime show at the National TV Awards

Scientists have identified a rare condition — Post-orgasmic Illness Syndrome — in men. So far they’ve discovered 60 cases. But how would we ladies know if he had POIS as the flu-like symptoms of slurred speech and memory loss are what most of us witness after he’s spent the night on a beer and pizza fest watching the footy?

A yellow card, Gary

The BBC finds its £1.35 million-a-year football presenter Gary Lineker has fallen foul of its impartiality rules having called out Russian donors to the Tory Party in a Tweet: ‘And her [Truss’s] party will hand back their donations from Russian donors?’

My only question is why it took the Beeb so long to rein in Lineker’s sanctimonious — and highly partial — outbursts.

Marking World Mental Health Day, the Prince of Wales said having a big family network to support you was key to coping. After Diana died it was his royal clan who helped him through the dark times and then Kate and the Middletons. What a pity Harry has ditched his family and Meghan disowned all of hers except her mother. Is that why the Waleses look so happy and the Sussexes so unutterably miserable?

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