Good guys don’t come last – they get the First Ladies

ALL the single ladies! Listen up. This could be lifechanging. Last week, it transpired that the Queen of Silicon Valley and our own May Queen have something very important in common when it comes to men.

Let us go first to that green One Show sofa, and the historic occasion the Mays offered themselves for inspection to the nation as a couple.

A bespectacled Philip gazed supportively at his wife, praised her cooking (very important) and spoke of not minding that he didn’t have his ‘tea’ at 6pm (when of course they have supper at eight-ish) as his wife was too busy being Prime Minister to have it on the table.

The takeaway here was that Mr May – who was on the way to becoming President of the Oxford Union when the future PM met him, and works as an investment relationship manager – was a bog-standard kind of bloke. Reserved. Shy. Unshowy. When asked about his fashion sense he looked anguished and stuttered: ‘I quite like ties.’

We now zoom far far away to Facebook’s Californian ‘campus’ where Sheryl Sandberg, the lush-haired chief operating officer of the social media behemoth, is sharing the secrets of a successful marriage over chopped salad with a Financial Times reporter.

‘You can date whoever you want, but you should marry the nerds and the good guys,’ Sheryl – who was widowed a couple of years ago – is ruling. You can date the bad guys, she allows, but you have to marry ‘the guys who want an equal relationship. Guys who want to support your career.’

What Ms Sandberg appears to be saying is there is a new type of romantic hero in town. Not your usual toxic Neanderthal from central casting – but the sensitive, supportive, selfsacrificial type, who might even put his other half first. Which makes perfect sense.

If you’re an alpha female, you don’t want an alpha male to power-struggle over who takes out the bins, a needy rival for status and attention. You want a nerd.

Angela Merkel’s got one (he’s a quantum chemist, I rest my case). Helena Morrissey – who juggled nine children with being boss of one of the City biggest investment houses, relies on hers – a former financial hack called Richard. Nicola Horlick might have even had two.

YUP, for today’s superwomen, it’s all about harnessing nerdpower, whether you define nerd as a quietly capable (trying not to say strong and stable) man in a form-fitting tank top (Britain), or a single-minded expert in a technical field such as the ‘guys’ Sheryl Sandberg might see across a crowded conference of matcha-tea drinking digerati in Silicon Valley.

Not only do they make good husbands, who don’t mind being the appendage to the power wife; these unpromising looking, scrawny, ‘good guys’ are frequently high achieving themselves – and a great get.

Look at gorgeous Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr’s fiance, the co-founder of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel. Mark Zuckerberg in his grey T-shirts. Steve Jobs. Bill Gates. All nerds to look at, but no need to ask what first attracted flocking females to these towering billionaire titans of the modern interconnected age.

So, single ladies, whether you go for a nerd in the sense of a meek, almost mousey, man like Philip May (who I think is very attractive, as it happens) or a tech-star, you will be making a wise choice.

Good guys don’t finish last. They end up with First Ladies. And the geek will indeed inherit the Earth.