A Wronged Wife Rubs Out Chris Tarrant
AT the age of 51, Ingrid Tarrant seemed to have it all. As blonde wife to Chris Tarrant, one of the most successful men in British telly, Ingrid had seen the lot.
From breakfast telly to breakfast radio and early evening telly, Ingrid had been very close to the vanguard of British showbiz.
But there was something missing – a Tarrant had never had their own space in the national press. It was a gap in a starry media resume Ingrid was happy to plug.
So here’s Ingrid, spread over two pages of the Mirror. She’s wearing a leopard-print negligee. She’s dressed in a nightdress and she has her feet up on a sofa.
But Ingrid has not given up on life. She has not stopped dressing and taken to spending the day in her pyjamas. She does not deliver her words while sat before daytime telly. This is, er, not how journalists behave.
This is Ingrid saying, “See what you’re missing Chris.” And this is Chris smiling. He beams as he poses for the cameras by Ingrid’s side. He smiles broadly as she sits by Fiona McKechnie, his mistress.
And he smiles some more as he sits at an awards dinner with Debbie Arnold, billed as “ex-EastEnders Debbie Arnold.”
“When you get hit by something as heartbreaking as betrayal and divorce you have a choice whether you just crumble up completely or pick yourself up and keep on moving. That’s what I decided to do,” says Ingrid.
Ingrid is moving. And this week you can see her moving from the papers to the telly where she appears on the ITV2 show Deadline.
This is the reality TV show in which a rehab of celebrities try to put together a magazine. Ingrid stars alongside such reality TV veterans as Abi Titmuss and Janet Street-Porter.
“I don’t want people to think I’m building a career out of a crisis,” says Ingrid. “I would hate that.”
Ingrid should not be so self-limiting. Careers have been built on less. And with Jade Goody no longer reality TV’s star turn, Ingrid should feel empowered to reach for the heights.
“In my Filofax I only ever write the names, addresses and numbers in pencil,” says Ingrid. Well, celebs change their names, right? You don’t want yesterday’s star in your Filofax.
Anorak imagines Ingrid’s rule is a twist on that adage about going out in clean underwear in case you get run over by a bus. If the celebrity is so struck down, the medic will rifle the fallen star’s contact book in search of a name. The book must only include the shiniest star names. “Ingrid was on her way to meet [insert name here],” says the official report. “She was, as ever, wearing clean, leopard-print underwear.”
Showbiz pals are important. Ingrid says she has enjoyed the support of Sharon Osbourne. Ingrid has met the actor Don Johnson on her new show.
Says Ingrid: “If someone hurts me, I get my rubber and completely erase all sign of them.”
Chris is erased. Don is in pencil. So too Sharon. Ingrid is moving on.
All aboard!
Posted: 2nd, April 2007 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
