Anthea Turner: How I trapped my cheating husband
ANTHEA Turner has reinvented herself many times during her 35-year career, from Blue Peter presenter to Loose Women panellist and modern-day Stepford Wife instructing us on how to keep our homes pristine. But her latest incarnation is her most surprising yet.
Promoting her new book which is out next month, twice-divorced Anthea has spoken sensationally of how she became a self-styled private detective in 2013 to prove that her now ex-husband, former property tycoon and celebrity Grant Bovey, was cheating on her.
Revealing that she went to extraordinary lengths to catch him out, spying on everything from his text messages to the car’s satnav, she began watching Bovey’s every move shortly after they had returned from what she thought had been a romantic New Year break in Mauritius.
Their relationship had been rocked just months earlier when he had admitted a fling with 24-year-old interior designer Zoe de Mallet Morgan.
But on holiday they had talked about renewing their vows as a sign their relationship was back on track.
If he was lying about his bike rides, what else could he be deceiving me about?
However, she sensed something was wrong when they got back to Britain and she began filming for the TV show Dancing On Ice. Grant’s pattern of behaviour changed, she said.
“I did an interview to help promote the show, saying how happy Grant and I were. Instead of sharing my happiness he went ballistic about discussing our private life.
“I couldn’t understand where all this anger had come from. I had my suspicions but were they justified or plain paranoia? There was only one way to find out. It was time to turn detective.
“The first step was simple. Grant told me he was meeting a ‘business contact’ at Shoreham airport, which in itself was unusual. So I went on to his computer to check his emails but I could not find any correspondence confirming the meeting. Odd, but not conclusive.”
When he returned home she checked his car’s satnav but could not find the location in ‘previous destinations’ when she knew he would have had to use it to get there. Perhaps there was an innocent explanation, she thought.
“But when I gently tried to quiz him he told me the meeting had gone well and changed the subject.”
As her suspicions grew Anthea turned her detective skills to Bovey’s love of cycling, homing in on the electronic device on his bike, which he would plug into the home computer to log the routes he had ridden – he had not been anywhere he claimed to have been.
Anthea Turner - Talks Coping and Divorce with Sunday Express (Camilla Tominey)
“If he was lying about his bike rides, what else could he be deceiving me about?”
It was the same story when she “nervously” checked the history on the anti-theft tracker device on their cars.
Bovey, who was declared bankrupt in 2010, had again been lying about his whereabouts. Unsurprisingly, his text messages and credit card usage then also came under her forensic scrutiny.
She added: “Grant had no idea I could do these things. He should not have underestimated me. I hated being the sort of woman who checks up on her husband.”
Anthea’s detective work paid off and she soon discovered that Bovey had resumed his affair with de Mallet Morgan. But when she confronted him this time there were no pathetic pleas from him for her forgiveness. He wanted out of their marriage and it unravelled in the summer of 2013.
Still, she is the first to admit that it was a classic tale of poacher turned gamekeeper. After all it was well documented that when she and Bovey became lovers in 1998 he was a married father of three daughters and she was married to former Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell.
Leaving a trail of heartache in their wake, they each ended their marriages and married in August 2000. But, as the old saying goes, when a man marries his mistress it leaves a vacancy – a prophecy that proved true for Anthea.
Her new book is about overcoming divorce and with two to her name she should know what she is talking about. After her split from Bovey she traded their Surrey mansion for an apartment in London and kept a low profile before returning to our TV screens in 2015.
“I’m not trying to be cosmic about this but I needed time to sort out my life because it was a mess,” she told me two years ago.
“Although the transition to being single again in my 50s was difficult, maybe it’s been easier because despite two marriages I have always maintained my own identity and career.”
Four years on from her divorce though Anthea, now 57, admits that she still bears the emotional scars of playing detective in her own backyard. Even now she can’t say she is completely over it and still the odd “down day’” but she has come to terms with being a double divorcee.
“In the immediate fallout from my separation from Grant I found myself dreading the future, fearing I was past my best with nothing to offer. I am in a healthier, more optimistic frame of mind but it has taken a serious amount of hard work to rediscover my independence, confidence and inner strength.”
How To Survive Divorce by Anthea Turner is published by Splendid Publications on May 18 priced £9.99 and is available on Amazon