Hollywood’s big love is himself
The ‘other woman’ is irrelevant. She simply serves a purpose
HAS Paul Hollywood been cheating with Bake Off winner Candice?
It’s the question baffling Britain – not to mention Mrs Hollywood, who in a joint statement with her husband has announced their 20-year marriage is over.
Certainly that picture where Candice touches Paul’s ear, and the frame where he holds her head as he kisses her goodbye, sizzle with more intimacy than an X-rated movie.
Paul Hollywood may not have been up to extra marital manoeuvrings with recently engaged Candice. But he certainly looks like a man who’s up for something with someone. Or actually, anyone. Because the reality is middleaged men like Paul Hollywood don’t leave their wives for other women… they leave them for themselves. The actual identity of an “other woman” is kind of irrelevant. She simply serves a purpose which is to give this kind of fella a means of indulging his greatest love of all – himself. These are the men who convince themselves they’re too vibrant, complex or fascinating to be ruled by the routine and relentlessness of domestic life. They feel their brilliance is undervalued and misunderstood. And so they pack up their ego and fly, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake. It may be that there isn’t even an “other woman” in this particular marriage split. But there was four years ago when Hollywood left Alex following a well documented affair with Mexican chef Marcela Valladolid.
And there is little to suggest Paul Hollywood’s self-love has abated in any way in the interim.
Like a Poundshop George Clooney, he has continued to preen and pose his way through another series of Bake Off, twinkling those blue eyes and flirting with any contestant under the age of 90.
The channel may have changed but Hollywood’s smarm offensive did not.
There are people who’ll tell you that the Hollywood marriage was doomed from the moment Alex took him back just a few months after his affair. They’ll tell you a leopard can’t change his spots. Or a baker change his recipe.
That seems a little depressing to me.
Anything is possible if someone wants it enough and is prepared to work hard enough to achieve it.
Tragically for the Hollywood family that hasn’t happened here.
So could it be a new love with a new woman that’s caused the fatal damage?
More likely I’d say the cause is Paul Hollywood’s oldest love… for himself.