Anthea Turner, 62, reveals she penned a letter to ex Grant Bovey, 61, about how the menopause was affecting her behaviour… not knowing he was already cheating with a 24-year-old
Anthea Turner has revealed she penned a letter to her then-husband Grant Bovey, pleading with him to understand how the menopause was responsible for her behaviour – not knowing he was already cheating on her with a 24-year-old.
The presenter, 62, said her work commitments made it hard to have a proper conversation with her ex, so she tried to put down the changes she was experiencing on paper.
The couple had been married 12 years before they split up when she was 52 after she found out about his affair.
‘I hadn’t a clue what was going on!’ Anthea Turner has revealed she wrote a letter about her ‘horrible’ menopause to ex husband Grant Bovey… while he was cheating with a 24-year-old
Former Blue Peter host Anthea said at first she herself didn’t understand what was happening to her, and she welcomed the recent more open debate about the menopause.
She said on the Postcards From Midlife podcast: ‘I hadn’t a clue what was going on. We need to talk about it – it’s a horrible time.
‘You just all of a sudden don’t feel yourself. And I know that sounds such a pathetic thing to say, “Oh, I don’t feel myself,” but you really don’t. You feel like somebody’s invaded your body.
‘All your markers are all out by a few degrees. I got spots on my back and I was sweating. I felt my confidence was going. I was getting brain fog, I was questioning myself.
Happier times: The couple had been married 12 years before they split up when she was 52 after she found out about his affair (pictured in 2012)
‘You want to turn to the person who’s the most important in your life, your husband, and I couldn’t. I’d be going backwards and forwards to Toronto at the time because I was doing a programme out there.
‘But, of course, what I didn’t realise is at the time he was going through his own little menopause, and he’d obviously taken up with a, very exciting in his life, 24-year-old.
‘So a sweaty, moaning wife was just like the last thing he wanted. And I wrote this little letter saying, you know, please understand that.
‘I then went reading up about it and found out a lot more, and I tried to explain. I thought I’ll write it all down and I wrote it all down.’
Opening up: The presenter, 62, said her work commitments made it hard to have a proper conversation with her ex, so she tried to put down the changes she was experiencing on paper (pictured in 2021)
Split: The marriage ended after she discovered that Grant, then 52, was having an affair with interior designer Zoe de Mallet Morgan (pictured 2013)
She said finding herself alone at Christmas led her to go on ski resort based TV show The Jump between Christmas and New Year just days after she’d returned from her own skiing holiday.
Anthea added: ‘I ran away to The Jump. The universe put that in my lap. I was facing my first Christmas on my own.
‘Christmas is great if everything else is lovely in your life, and if it’s not, Christmas is a horror, an absolute horror.’
Anthea and Grant married in 2000 after first meeting in 1998, with them both leaving their respective partners.
They first split in 2012 and briefly reconciled before separating for good in 2013, and were divorced in 2015 on the grounds of his adultery.
The marriage ended after she discovered that Grant, then 52, was having an affair with interior designer Zoe de Mallet Morgan.
Her discovery came less than a year after she had forgiven him for an indiscretion with another woman.
Anthea has since found love again with businessman Mark Armstrong, 56.
New love: Anthea has since found love again with businessman Mark Armstrong, 56 (pictured)
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