How Gordon and Tana Ramsays rollercoaster marriage has weathered alleged seven-year affair

THE year certainly got off to a happy start for Gordon and Tana Ramsay, with the couple yesterday announcing they are expecting their fifth child.

However, life hasn't always been so blissful for the outspoken chef, 52, and his wife, 44.

Over the years Gordon and Tana's 23-year marriage has been rocked by his alleged seven-year affair with a “professional mistress”; by Tana’s father and Gordon’s business partner being jailed; and by the tragic miscarriage of their baby at five months.

Their relationship has had so many high and low moments that the bad-mouthed cook once called it a “rollercoaster”.

Here, as they prepare to welcome baby number five, Sun Online examines the most turbulent moments the couple have weathered.

'Big boy Gordon's phone sex on the Eurostar'

By the mid-2000s, Gordon had been married to Tana for almost a decade, had won Michelin-starred acclaim with his growing restaurant empire and launched a successful television career.

He’d also become a father-of-four to Megan, twins Holly and Jack, and Matilda.

But his personal life was about to be shattered by allegations of cheating.

In 2008, a woman called Sarah Symonds claimed she had been in a secret, on-off relationship with Gordon for seven years.

The author of Having an Affair? A Handbook for the Other Woman claimed that they had enjoyed secret sex sessions on seven occasions between London and Los Angeles after meeting at London's Chinawhite nightclub in 2001.

The so-called "professional mistress" wrote in her book, widely believed to be about Gordon: "He complained to my friend that things weren’t going well between him and his wife and that he was made to sleep in the basement."

Sarah also claimed: "I remain mystified to this day what Gordon, who professes to be a happily married man, was doing at a nightclub at 2am.”

She said that on one of the 18 occasions they allegedly met that she was introduced to Tana by Gordon at the opening of his Connaught Hotel restaurant in October 2002.

"I felt very awkward. At one point in the evening, I called Gordon ‘big boy’ because he is very well-endowed — and he told me to keep my voice down," she explained.

Gordon's "mistress" also claimed she had phone sex multiple times with the chef - including once when he was travelling on the Eurostar.

She elaborated: “It was particularly dirty phone sex and involved pictures. I thought we should not be doing it because it was too dangerous. Anyone could have overheard what he was saying.”

On their final illicit encounter, which she said took place in London's Marriott Hotel in November 2008, she claimed to have brought along a supply of the legal sex drug amyl nitrate.

Gordon immediately denied he had strayed from Tana, and defended himself in a characteristically expletive-laden style.

"Come on though, if I was really going to cheat it wouldn't be with a complete slapper," the Daily Telegraph reported him as saying.

"It's true, I confess. I've been s****ing Delia for the past ten years."

He never sued Sarah Symonds over the allegations.

He's said to have apologised to his wife and told a friend he was devastated she was humiliated over the claims.

Stealing his friend’s girl

It was perhaps a sign of things to come that Gordon and Tana's initial courtship wasn't without drama.

When they met, Cayetana Hutcheson, an 18-year-old from Croydon, was actually dating and living with his friend Tim, a sous chef.

Gordon – then a twenty-something junior cook from Stratford-upon-Avon - said it was love at first sight when he popped round to the house, where he was storing his motorbike.

Because of Gordon's ascent up the ranks in top London restaurants he would regularly do 16-hour days and finish in the early hours of the morning.

She’s previously said: “I would work, come home, sleep, and wake up again when Gordon finished work.

“We'd meet up in the small hours. That was the only way we could be together, and we really wanted to be together.”

It was all worth it and the pair married in 1996 in Chelsea, when she was 21 and he was 29.

Father-in-law's secret family

At the same time as Gordon's alleged cheating, Tana's father placed serious strain on the couple’s marriage when his secret family and 'distressing fraud' was exposed – leading to a subsequent jail sentence.

The star chef had joined forces with his businessman father-in-law, Christopher Hutcheson to open his first restaurant in Chelsea. As his empire grew, both men profited.

However, he soon discovered that Christopher was not the straight-laced businessman and devoted father his wife believed.

In October 2010 Gordon accused him of taking £1.4 million from the company – having sacked him over discovering financial irregularities - and in 2017 he was jailed for six months for hacking company computers to steal information during their dispute.

At the same time it came out that Tana's dad had kept an entire family - including a mistress and two illegitimate children - a secret for much of her life.

Gordon had kept his own knowledge of Christopher's lies from his wife for 18 months to "protect" her, according to the Daily Mail.

But his "mistress" Sarah later claimed he didn't spill to Tana because her father knew about his affair.

Of the episode, he said: “The s*** the family throw at [Tana] just makes us stronger.”

Baby heartbreak

In the early years of their marriage their first hurdle was when they struggled to conceive.

Tana was diagnosed with poly-cystic ovarian syndrome and Gordon admitted his job was also behind their fertility problems.

He revealed to James Cordon on The Late Late Show, "I had a very low sperm count on the back of standing in the kitchen for that length of time close to the stove."

So it was even more of a miracle - albeit one helped by IVF - when they welcomed Megan, in 1998. In Holly and Jack arrived, then Matilda in 2002.

When the couple announced in 2016 that they were expecting their fifth child, they were ecstatic.

However, heartbreak was to follow when they revealed Tana, then 42, had lost the baby five months into the pregnancy.

Gordon said shortly after: "We were devastated, but thankfully we’re through the worst now. It could happen at any time to anyone. It has brought us all so much closer."

He joked she threw a plate at him

While her husband has become famous for his swearing and 'Mr Nasty' persona, his wife insists it is all an act.

"Gordon just loves winding people up. Absolutely loves it,” she told the Daily Telegraph in 2016.

The chef is known for his temper but he said he was actually on the receiving end of his wife’s anger when she boiled over and threw a plate at him after he criticised her food. Or so he joked in an interview with The Times.

“If there is one thing I have learnt, it’s that you have to be honest. There is nothing Gordon can’t say to me or I can’t say to him,” Tana said, when asked about her husband’s alleged infidelity.

"We have been through some really difficult times, but we dealt with it as a family.

"‘We believe in being completely open; we were aware we needed to let the kids ask us anything, and it made us all a lot stronger.

"The important lesson for the children was that they know if there is a problem, they can tell us, we can talk about it and we can resolve it. That’s what families do."

In 2009, the couple announced they planned to renew their wedding vows in London, and asked pals David and Victoria Beckham to be witnesses.

At the time, a source told The People: "Gordon wants to show just how infatuated he still is with Tana. They have both had to endure some stormy days after he was accused of being unfaithful.

"Gordon has maintained he has been the victim of untrue allegations. He is so delighted that Tana has stood by him."

But it seems as though the couple haven't got round to it yet.

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Gordon and Tana were yesterday excited to announce the arrival of their new child, 17 years after their last.

Tana has previously said: “It has been a lot of hard work, long hours and juggling with kids, home, family, work. It doesn’t happen if you are not a team from the beginning. We have always been a team."

When you're on a team with Gordon, you know that it won't be boring.

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