A heartbroken Ingrid Tarrant has spoken of the devastating moment she found out husband Chris had been having a seven-year affair with head teacher Fiona McKechnie. "I shook. It was physical, I felt I was going to have a heart attack… I was literally broken-hearted and shocked," she said.
Ingrid and her estranged husband were both interviewed - separately - by TV presenter Gloria Hunniford for a Biography channel programme to be screened on Saturday. The couple, who have two children together and were married for 15 years, are now mainly communicating through lawyers, as Ingrid revealed she "can't bear to hear his voice" or see her spouse
The 52-year-old told Gloria that she knew something was wrong, but that it was a "huge decision to put a private detective on him". "I respect people's privacy hugely and I thought 'God this is absolutely horrible'. But I had to do it," she explained.
And the attractive blonde feels buoyed by the public's reaction. "I think it's pretty damaging to his career, there seems to be a backlash. The public don’t know me but it's almost like they're supporting me whole-heartedly, they're feeling my pain."
She made her husband break the news of his infidelity to their children, Toby, 14 and Samantha, 17, and their four children from previous relationships. "It was quite brutal explaining it," says Chris. "They were in tears... horrified, ashamed, disgusted." The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire presenter doesn't think his wife, who he describes as the love of his life, will ever forgive him and is clearly chastened about the way things have turned out.
"It's a mess of my creation," he said. "We should be together having the best time of our lives. We should be enjoying our house in France. I mean, I've worked my nuts off for 30 years. We should be putting our toes up and having a really good time." The 50-year-old star has been unable to explain why he conducted the affair but attributes it to being "a man thing" and a "fact of life".
"I'm not the first and I won't be the last. I mean I didn't break the law," he said. "Yes I was a bad boy and yes I went out with another woman. But what is this hysteria?" Chris says he has not had contact with Fiona since the end of the affair and is now hoping to move on. "I did this one big, bad deed, and yes I'm ashamed of it, but basically I'm not a bad guy."
Photo: © Alphapress.com
