On the day the first reports of Gordon Ramsay’s extramarital activities broke, the man himself was at Babington House, recovering from a friend’s birthday party the night before. Staff quietly removed every copy of the offending paper, so that Ramsay and his pals were protected from the awkward modern inconvenience of a kiss-and-tell exposé.

As Gordon and his wife, Tana, were chauffeur-driven back to their family home in Wandsworth, who can guess what kind of conversations were going on in the back of the Mercedes. Because to the outside world, the Ramsays have done the united front — posing, with the rictus grins so beloved of disgraced MPs, for the welcoming party of paparazzi. His wife is standing by him. Ramsay may deny the allegations, but within hours the usual “friends” had come forward to say his wife has become “resigned” to his roving eye.

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