... And her son’s shocked reaction to her decision to bare all? ‘Oh my God!’

WHEN his mother told him she planned to try internet dating, Adam Porter’s first thought was ‘Oh my God!’

But there was one particular conversation, after he enquired about her ‘progress’, that left him deeply shocked.

‘We have always been a very close family and I used to ask her about the internet dating. She would give fairly bland replies,’ said Adam, 36, a youth worker and Monica’s eldest son.

‘But one time we were together she took a phone call, and I asked, “Who was that?”

‘She said, “Oh this guy . . . he’s a bit young.” I asked how young and she ummed and ahhed.

‘I suggested 30. When she said er, no, I said, ‘‘Twentyseven?’’ I was shocked. I was thinking, “This is someone sleeping with my mum and he’s younger than me.”’

Adam was even more stunned when he read an account of an unpleasant episode in her book, My Year Of Dating Dangerously.

‘When I read about one of her young lovers who grabbed her by the throat and called her ‘‘mummy’’, I felt angry and sick,’ Adam said. ‘It’s a powerful and not very pleasant image. I felt like decking him. This is my mother I was reading about, and I am very protective of her.

‘I rang her after reading the story and said, ‘‘It’s not the easiest thing for a son to read about his mother, you know. You’re not still internet dating, are you?’’ When she said no, I felt relieved.’

Adam and his wife Sara, who have two boys aged six and three, live in Bournemouth where devoted grandmother Monica regularly visits to play with her grandchildren. Adam admits he can see the attraction of age-gap sex for a younger man. ‘I had a fling with a 30-year-old when I was 19 and it felt exciting, being with someone who had experience. But it felt very odd talking about the subject to my mother.’

He is broadly supportive of his mother’s book – despite the fact she banned him and his younger brother Nick, 30, from reading it.

‘She warned us the book would be racy and said she didn’t want us to read it,’ Adam said. ‘Nick told her he would read it when she was dead.’

In fact the only confidante with whom Monica shared details of her sexual journey was Sara, 36, who works in IT and spends one night a week staying with her mother-in-law at her home in London. ‘We’d have weekly catch-ups over glasses of wine and we’d get out the iPad and Monica would show me the pictures of the men who were approaching her,’ Sara said.

‘I can’t tell you how much I looked forward to each instalment. It was a truly fascinating journey she was making. Some of the men were very young. I remember looking at one picture and saying, “But he’s a baby.” Monica said, “No! He’s 25.”

‘But it wasn’t just about the sex. It was about her journey from being sad and lost after the break-up with her long-term partner and the excitement she felt about the fact she was still wanted.

‘However, I was worried about her safety and couldn’t believe she would allow strange men to come to her home. She assured me she was being careful.’

Sara says it was easy to keep details of her mother-in-law’s sex exploits a secret from Adam. ‘I felt details were best shared on a need-to-know basis. Most of these things he just didn’t need to know.’

Adam says the ‘backlash’ against his mother is hard to take. ‘It’s scary,’ he adds. ‘You don’t know where it will all end.

‘I’m worried that people will get the wrong idea about my mother. She is a wonderful person. I don’t like it that, by writing so openly, she has given others the power to judge her.’

But he insists that his mother’s book is largely a positive thing. ‘Mum is not married and doesn’t have a partner. Is she supposed to live like a spinster all her life?’ he said.

‘I think hers is an uplifting story. Why shouldn’t she have fun? I hope I’m still having fun when I’m 60. What she has done is not something to be ashamed of, or embarrassed by. ‘I have been really shocked at the level of criticism of her but I think most of it will be coming from women who are jealous of what Mum has done. ‘And if there is any criticism from men, it’s probably because they wish they had been one of her dates.’