Philandering celebrities (From Watford Observer)

Philandering celebrities

8:09pm Wednesday 17th March 2010

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They say you should never meet your idols as you're always going to be disappointed. We put them up on a pedestal and think they can do no wrong.

These days, though, we don't really need to meet them to be disappointed. Whether it's splashed on the front page of the red tops, on the cover of Heat/Closer or any of the other gossip mags, being discussed on Loose Women/GMTV/This Morning or whatever, you're never far away from finding out about your idol's life, warts and all.

To be honest, I'm beginning to get a bit bored of waking up each day to hear about yet another philandering celebrity being caught with his trousers down. John Terry, Gareth Gates, Darren Day, Ashley Cole, the list really does seem endless. None of them were that surprising (apart from Gareth Gates maybe) until last week...

As a girl born in the early 80s, I adored Take That in my teens. Young, handsome and squeaky-clean, they were every schoolgirl's dream and, although I'm not naive enough to think they were all completely perfect, I am not afraid to admit I was surprised, and perhaps a little shocked, to hear that Mark Owen has been following in the footsteps of many a celebrity and been sleeping with other women behind his wife's back. According to last week's papers, he's had 10 affairs behind his wife's back - one weekly magazine has also claimed he said 'If I paid them all off I'd be bankrupt'. It turns out one of his affairs lasted five years, finishing just before his wedding six months ago - admitting it to his wife when the girl in question threatened to go to the press.

Is it just me who thinks these men are so stupid to think that they won't get found out and that the girls in question aren't going to go to the press? As an outsider, it seems obvious that many of the girls are in it to earn celebrity status themselves - just look at Rebecca Loos after she claimed to have had an affair with David Beckham - or to sell their story to the highest bidder. But, maybe they're just daft enough to think that he'll leave his wife and they'll live happily ever after. It could be that the men involved want to get found out to prove to the world that they are so wonderful that their wives won't throw them out. With regards to John Terry, this seems to be the case - he must have something going for him for his wife to take him back time and time again - but she's been humiliated enough for me to discuss her possible reasons for forgiving him.

I heard on a tv show a couple of weeks ago that women are just as likely to commit adultery than men, yet how many female celebrities have you heard who've had affairs? Maybe they feel they've got too much to loose, or perhaps they believe the press will bring them down so much their careers would be over. Or it could be that the men involved just wouldn't stoop so low as to sell their story to the world...