?ffb\i _`jkfip kfid\ek

WHEN I was a teenager there were all sorts of rumours about the woman down the road being a prostitute.

Now that “hooker” is my partner. We’ve been together for 15 years and run a successful business.

I thought I could handle her sordid past, but the older I get, the harder I’m finding it to forget what she did for dirty cash.

Every time she gets above herself or has a go at me for the smallest thing I find myself imagining her with one of my old mates.

She used to hang around outside our local pub and my uncle was also a regular customer.

How do I get past this? I’m terrified I’m going to lose it and blurt something out.

JANE SAYS: Are you as pure as the driven snow yourself? Are you honestly telling me that you did nothing as a younger man that you’d rather forget?

Your partner can’t do anything about the past. She can’t turn back time or undo her deeds. What you see before you is the woman she is today.

I guarantee that all sorts of people in your adult life with be harbouring a variety of secrets and lies. Surely life is too short to torture yourself with her previous existence?

Think about it – something pretty horrible or drastic must have happened in her own youth or childhood to send her on to the streets.

Have some empathy and respect the woman she has become.