Free speech comic bans ex from detailing his ‘infidelities’

HE HAD his own Channel 4 show before becoming a Radio 4 stalwart, presenting his eponymous series, Mark Thomas: The Manifesto, one of whose proposals was that Britain should have a ‘USA-style 1st Amendment to protect free speech’.

But the activist-comedian, 58, evidently believes that some subjects are off-limits — his treatment of Jenny Landreth, an awardwinning writer whom he married more than 30 years ago, perhaps foremost among them.

The couple, pictured, used to share a £1.5million house in South London, but no longer.

In a series of anguished statements on social media, Landreth has exposed what she categorises as Thomas’s ‘serial infidelity’ — and how he has allegedly prevented her from publishing a memoir about their break-up and divorce. ‘Three+ years ago, I found some sh** I wasn’t supposed to find,’ she explains. ‘It smashed three decades of my life to bits.

‘My heart was very broken. I wrote a memoir about long-term marriage, gaslighting, serial infidelity, divorce . . . The book is about feelings and experiences which are mine, but of course it does centre [on] another person. The resulting legal shizzle is an absolute f ***** . (Even c **** have privacy rights.)’

Landreth, 60, feels that she dare not go to court against Thomas, who reflected in 1994 that people didn’t realise ‘how much big money is to be made in comedy’.

His ex-wife, pictured with him, writes: ‘I don’t have the ££ to risk a lawsuit. So I’ve made the decision to walk away. 18+ emotional months in the writing and 30 yrs in the living. I am really really tired. (And pretty tearful, writing this).

‘I’m proud of the book, the best thing I’ve written,’ adds Lander, before offering a withering summary of her exchanges with Thomas. ‘My ex: Free speech for all! Me: I’ve written... My ex: Not you, love.’ Thomas did not respond to requests for comment.