Bake Of f Paul and his ‘secret date with barmaid aged 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, 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 fivestar Dorchester hotel, it was claimed.
The report comes just days after Hollywood and his wife Alexandra, 53, who have a teenage son together, announced they were splitting up after 20 years together. 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.
Hollywood is understood to have met Miss Monteys Fullam in May at the Duke William pub in the village of Ickham, Kent, near his £1.4million farmhouse.
Locals said that after his wife’s party Hollywood, who is originally from Wallasey near Liverpool, began regularly visiting the pub.
A source told the Sun on Sunday: ‘He only seemed to come in when Summer was working.
‘The pair of them often sat in the corner of the pub just chatting together for long periods of time. Her friendship with Paul has become the talk of the village. This is a very close-knit community and word gets around very quickly.’
The source added: ‘The age gap between them doesn’t seem to be a problem. Summer is only 22 but is very mature for her age. She has told friends that she believes they could, in the future, become a couple.’
The pair’s friendship blossomed while Miss Monteys Fullam was living with her parents, who run a tat- too removal business, in a £1million home in the village. Since rumours began, she has moved out of her parents’ house into a rented cottage and deleted her social media profiles, the source said. Miss Monteys Fullam, who has three sisters and has modelled for a bridal magazine, has also apparently quit her job. ‘Summer has left after she kept getting ribbed by her fellow workers about Paul,’ the source claimed. ‘It had clearly upset her a lot and she was very defensive of Paul.’
Last week the Hollywoods released a joint statement announcing they had decided to separate ‘with sadness’, adding: ‘Our focus continues to be the happiness of our son.’
The source said: ‘The news of the split was a shock to a lot of people but not to Summer. She had been told several days in advance about the timing of the statement. She said that Paul was not going to be around for a few days because the news was going to come out.’
Hollywood, who was the only star of Bake Off to follow the show when it moved from the BBC to Channel 4, has previously described his affair with Miss Valladolid, 39, as the ‘biggest mistake of my life’.
A few weeks ago the chef was pictured with Miss Brown, who recently got engaged, after the Pride of Britain Awards ceremony. They laughed off rumours that they had shared an ‘intimate kiss’, with Miss Brown describing it as a ‘goodbye peck’.
‘Believes they could become a couple’