Torquay’s Macron!
Never mind the age gap between French president and his wife . . . meet the Tory hopeful, 38, whose bride-to-be is a divorcee of 66
LIKE any woman excitedly preparing for her wedding, Hazel Noonan loves to glance down at her engagement ring.
A simple gold band embedded with little jewels, it isn’t worth a great deal of money, but for Hazel the sentimental value is priceless.
It was given to her three years ago by her fiance Kevin Foster’s mother Linda – a seal of approval for Hazel’s relationship with her son.
The gesture was all the more significant when you know that at the time Hazel, then 62, was three years older than Linda herself and a divorced grandmother of two to boot.
Her intended was only 35 – making the age gap between them 27 years.
It might have remained a private matter for the couple, who are due to marry next month, were it not for Kevin’s election two years ago as the Tory MP for Torbay, giving him a public profile.
Then there’s the small matter of another political couple and their Mayto-December love affair across the Channel. French president-elect Emmanuel Macron is married to a woman, Brigitte, 25 years older than himself.
So not one but two young ambitious political creatures, both under 40 and both ensconced with women a generation older. However, Kevin, 38, and Hazel, 66 today, insist the similarities end there. The couple say that far from
waving the banner for age- gap romance, they see themselves only as two people in love.
‘I’ve never really thought of Hazel as older,’ says Kevin. ‘Since we first met as friends and colleagues we always got on, we enjoyed the same things and it went from there. I didn’t go out looking for a certain kind of relationship or a certain kind of woman – this just seemed to work out. We’re very close. Hazel is both my lover and my best friend.’
It’s a sentiment echoed by Hazel. ‘I was never the pushy older woman – I always held back as I assumed at some point we would go our separate ways. We were friends and enjoyed each other’s company and over time we fell in love.’
They will marry on June 10 – two days after the election called by Theresa May. ‘My stag night has gone out of the window, as has the hen night,’ says Kevin wryly.
At least Hazel understands the vagaries of politics. A former Tory councillor, she herself once stood as a prospective MP in her home town of Coventry.
Indeed, their eyes first met in 2000 on the campaign trail in Coventry, where Hazel was hoping to win a seat on the council. Kevin, who was born and raised in Plymouth, was a 21-year-old graduate working in the area and, having joined the Tory party, was keen to get involved. ‘ He ended up doing the clipboard as it’s called, recording the results of our door knocking,’ says Hazel.
Then 48, she was married with two grown-up children and the relationship was platonic for many years. ‘We had a few years working together quite closely and we became very good friends, nothing more,’ says Kevin. That started to change in 2010, a year in which both fought the Tories’ corner in the general election, Hazel standing for Coventry North-East, Kevin for Coventry South, although neither won. By then Hazel had been divorced for seven years and her former husband had passed away, while Kevin had just emerged from an 18-month romance with a woman around his own age. ‘Hazel and I spent so much time together that she became my “plus one” at a lot of the events if I had been invited,’ he says. Quite when friendship became romance the couple are not saying, although towards the end of 2010 they went to stay with friends of Kevin’s ‘as a couple’. But they let everyone else work it out for themselves. ‘For a long time we never really confirmed to people, not even close family, that we were together,’ says Kevin. ‘We did have some concerns about what the reaction might be.’ For her part, Hazel says: ‘I was conscious that Kevin was younger and politically minded so I thought at some point he would get involved politically somewhere else and we would go our separate ways.’ Still, it seems everyone else was clear they were an item. ‘I remember in 2011 getting an invitation for “Mr and Mrs Kevin Foster” from the Bishop of Coventry,’ says Kevin.
In 2013 the relationship became a long-distance one when Kevin moved back to Devon to be closer to his mother, who had previously had bowel cancer and had once more become seriously ill. He had also decided to stand for election as the Tory candidate for Torbay.
When Linda had to be admitted to a hospice, Kevin decided to come clean. ‘Mum was starting to hint that she knew something was going on, and it seemed right to tell her. She was very pleased and happy,’ he says. So happy that she gave Hazel her ring. ‘It really did mean a lot,’ says Hazel. Linda died in January 2014.
When Hazel revealed the relationship to her own two grown-up children – both older than Kevin – they were ‘very supportive’. ‘When I talked about whether to move down, my son said “go for it, Mum”, which was lovely,’ she says.
First though, one serious matter needed to be aired: With Hazel now in her 60s, there would be no children. Kevin says it was not a problem – he loved Hazel more than the idea of fatherhood.
Hazel moved to Torquay in 2015, shortly before Kevin became the area’s MP. Since then she has made herself indispensable as his right-hand woman – they joke that their mutual hobby is ‘leafleting’.
Then, a year ago today – Hazel’s 65th birthday – Kevin popped the question over dinner. ‘We’d come home and I said, “Do you fancy getting married?” So it wasn’t terribly romantic,’ he laughs.
Of the Macron comparisons, Kevin says: ‘It may be that when French voters were looking at electing their president they thought this was someone who has a stability and support.’
Whether his bride-to-be will be an MP’s wife come their wedding day remains to be seen – but the soon to be Mr and Mrs Foster have, arguably, overcome bigger hurdles than a mere election.
‘She’s both my lover and my best friend’ ‘Someone who has a stability and support’