Chris Tarrant's ex-wife Ingrid has opened up about her former husband's shocking affair.
TV personality Ingrid and former Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host Chris were married between 1991 and 2007 and had two children, including radio presenter Toby.
Speaking on Best magazine's Suddenly Single series, Ingrid stated that she suspected her then-husband was seeing another woman, and went to great lengths to prove it.
"I had confirmation by putting a private detective on him," she recalled. "But several years before, I thought, 'Something's not right'. I asked him outright, 'Are you thinking of having an affair? Are you having an affair?'
"'Oh, don't be ridiculous, of course not,' [he said] and I 100 percent believed him."
However, years later, she asked him again and didn't believe him when he said no.
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"Something was telling me he was lying," she said. "I thought the only way to find out if to put a private detective on him.
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"I had to get a tracker fitted to Chris's car. So I needed an excuse to get his car for the day to have it fitted. So I asked to borrow it as I needed to get some straw from the stables."
"It took them so long to wire it as he'd just had video screens installed for the kids," she added. "Then he had another car but I bought a burner phone [to track the location] but I had to keep charging that up.
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"At the time there were moments when I thought this is insane. I would be shimmying across the floor, being really quiet to get the keys to go out and charge [the phone]. I had so many sleepless nights because I had to charge it while he was asleep and before he woke up in the morning."
She also accused Chris of trying to gaslight her into thinking she needed psychiatric help in an attempt to keep his secret.
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She said: "Chris tried to convince me I was imagining things, said to book myself into The Priory. I know who I am, but if I hadn't I'd have thought, 'What's the matter with me?'. You could blame yourself for everything but I knew I wasn't going mad."
Chris admitted to having an affair and said in a statement in 2006 that he was "deeply sorry" for the hurt he caused. "I have only myself to blame for the breakdown of my marriage," he said.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Ingrid talked about how she's now happy being both single and celibate.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
