Matt: I’ve got a mountain to climb before I propose to new love Gina
HE’S proclaimed that he’s ‘deeply in love’ and there are whispers he is about to pop the question.
But Matt Hancock has scotched rumours that he is set to propose to his lover Gina Coladangelo – pointing out it’s not possible as he is still married to Martha, the mother of his three children.
The former Health Secretary, whose affair with his aide cost him his wife and his Cabinet job, insists he has another matter on his mind: scaling the tallest mountain in the Alps, Mont Blanc, with Gina to raise money for a new children’s hospital in Cambridge.
Despite being no stranger to a challenge – he ran the London Marathon last year and trekked to the North Pole in 2005 – Matt has been maintaining a gruelling training schedule, walking long distances every weekend to prepare for the climb ahead – crucial preparation when your constituency is as flat as West Suffolk!
Gina will also be taking on the challenge – and has another role in Operation Climb Mont Blanc.
Matt has lost a stone during his training programme and no longer fits his suits, so Gina is taking the opportunity to give him a style makeover by helping him choose a new wardrobe. ‘She keeps a keen eye on his look,’ says a friend.
Matt is taking the challenge so seriously that he even tried to get James Bond star Daniel Craig’s personal trainer Simon Waterson on board to get him into shape. Unfortunately, the timings didn’t quite work out.
The former Minister tells me that the one thing that keeps him going in training is ‘the fear of needing that extra bit of strength when you’re hanging on to the ice’.
Both Matt and Gina’s marriages were blown apart when they were filmed in a clinch in his office during lockdown at a time when he had been urging others to keep their distance.
Despite the controversy, the pair’s romance still seems to be on a high.