Should you stay with a husband who strays?

As Dominic West wins back his wife after those Lily James pictures...

WOuLD i ever trust Dominic West again if i were his wife? there she was at home with their four kids, when pictures emerged of him gazing adoringly at a besotted Lily James.

Him stroking her cheek, snuggling up to her on a scooter (and, actually, what is a 50-year-old man doing on a scooter anyway?)

in spite of all this, Catherine fitzGerald has decided she can trust her husband again. After a few consoling weeks in Lamu, an idyllic island in Kenya, she has agreed to take him back, on the proviso he never has contact with Lily again. i think she has done the right thing.

Many women will disagree. they will see it as anti-feminist and weak, even foolish. they will argue that once a man has strayed, he will do so again. And again.

in my opinion, it would be more foolish to give up on a relationship that began when they were university students, and a life together with four (still relatively small) children, for what one of my friends describes as ‘a bit of side salad’.

infidelity is often the result of circumstance more than personality. Of course, there are some serial adulterers but it’s ridiculous to condemn someone to a life sentence of mistrust because they stray once.

How many men, having shared a few bottles of wine with a pretty girl at lunch, would be tempted to stroke her cheek, much like Dominic West did?

What about a business trip where you end up in bed with someone you’re never likely to see again? Do these, or countless other circumstances that could lead to infidelity, make a man (or a woman) untrustworthy? i don’t think so.

What if you refuse to trust your partner again on the basis of something that actually meant nothing at all? thus depriving you both of a truly meaningful relationship and a happy life together.

A man who strays might actually be doing so in search of his true mate. i have a friend who is married to a man she had a fling with while he was still in an unhappy relationship with his now ex-wife. As far as i know, he has been faithful for 20 years and counting.

i would be more upset if my husband announced he would rather spend time with and talk to another woman than have a quick fling in Rome. Although i would prefer it if she weren’t a 32-year-old film star.

‘ Don’t end a marriage over a bit of side salad