Top Gear star Paddy’s secret messages to BBC presenter
After TV host and model wife say their 11-year marriage is over...
PADDY McGUINNESS’S marriage was rocked when his wife found Instagram messages from the Top Gear host to a BBC presenter, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The 48-year-old TV star, who made his name on the dating show Take Me Out, is understood to have exchanged a series of messages with the woman in March, shortly before he and wife Christine decided to live separate lives.
The couple announced officially last week that they had split up after 11 years of marriage.
While there is no suggestion that the messages went beyond friendship, informed sources said that Mrs McGuinness, 34, was upset after finding them on his phone.
One friend said: ‘Paddy had been messaging the woman for some time. They were direct messages and were quite friendly. It’s unclear how they met but they followed one another for a while.
‘There have been various issues between him and Christine, but this was definitely one of the driving forces that began to make them assess their future as a married couple.’
Speaking to The Sun On Sunday this month, Mrs McGuinness hinted at serious strains in the marriage, adding: ‘I don’t want to go into it too much, but I will just say that I didn’t cause this situation. You’ve got to expect it when you’ve been together for so long.
Everyone grows and changes, and we’ve grown as a family, which is amazing. That family bond will always be there, no matter what.
‘But I was a teenager when I met him and I’m a 34-year-old woman now, so I suppose what I might have put up with in the past, I probably wouldn’t put up with now – and the same for him.’
The couple announced on Instagram on Friday they had decided to split, but would still live together at their £2.1 million home in Cheshire for the sake of their autistic children – twins Leo and Penelope, eight, and six-year-old Felicity. They said they had lived separate lives for some time.
‘A while ago we took the difficult decision to separate, but our main focus as always is to continue loving and supporting our children,’ they said. ‘This was not an easy decision to make, but we’re moving forward as the best parents we can be for our three beautiful children. We’ll always be a loving family, we still have a great relationship and still live happily in our family home together.’
Friends of Mrs McGuinness, who was also diagnosed with autism last year, say fissures in the relationship deepened as her husband’s success grew.
In 2018 he was named as one of three hosts of Top Gear – with Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris – and last year began hosting Question Of Sport.
For her part, friends say Mrs McGuinness, a former beauty queen who took part in a documentary with her husband last year to raise awareness of autism, became more assured after appearing as a contestant this year in The Games, a reality sports game show on ITV.
‘Christine found confidence on The Games,’ said one. ‘She felt like she was doing something for herself finally, and she made some great friends. She was very much at home before that, watching Paddy have a successful career. It has been wonderful to see her find herself.’
Mrs McGuinness also signed with a different agent to her husband and is to present a BBC documentary exploring the rise in the number of adult women being diagnosed with autism. But sources say that growing work commitments meant the couple spent less time together.
‘Our main focus is supporting our children’