Paul Hollywood ‘had a secret date with barmaid, 22’

PAUL Hollywood had a secret date with a barmaid three decades his junior as his marriage was breaking up, it has been reported. The Great British Bake Off judge, 51, was said to have struck up a ‘close friendship’ with Summer Monteys-Fullam, 22, both pictured left, after meeting her at the village pub where she worked while arranging to hold his wife’s birthday party there. The chef – a year older than the part-time model’s father – later wined and dined her at London’s five-star Dorchester Hotel, it was claimed.

The report comes just days after Hollywood and his wife Alexandra, 53, who have a teenage son, announced they were splitting up after 20 years.

The couple briefly separated in 2013 after he admitted to an affair with Marcela Valladolid, his co-judge on the American version of Bake Off. She is 12 years younger than him.

He returned to his wife and they appeared to rebuild their relationship – but in recent weeks, they have been plagued by rumours after he was pictured in a ‘cosy embrace’ with former Bake Off winner Candice Brown, 32.

He has denied this, laughing it off as ‘a goodbye peck’

Hollywood is understood to have met Ms Monteys-Fullam in May at the Duke William pub in a Kent village near his farmhouse.

Locals said that after his wife’s party, Hollywood began regularly visiting the pub. A source told media: ‘He only seemed to come in when Summer was working.’

Since the rumours began, she has moved out of her parents’ house and deleted her social media profiles, the source said. She has also apparently quit her job. The source claimed: ‘It had clearly upset her a lot.’

Last week, the Hollywoods released a statement announcing they had decided ‘with sadness’ to separate.