Among all the astonishing questions raised by Stuart Hall’s confession to 14 child sex attacks, perhaps the most troubling is this: how could his wife of 54 years not have suspected a thing?
It is true, of course, that serial sex offenders are clever at covering their tracks, at frightening their victims into silence and cloaking their evil deeds with charitable works.
How else could Jimmy Savile have got away with his vile crimes for so long.
But Savile was a bachelor, and a weird one at that, while on the surface Hall was a happily married father of two.
He wasn’t going home to an empty flat, after his attacks on young girls, but to a wife, two children and a loving family home.
Now the truth has been exposed, Hall’s family is devastated, but a friend says they are determined to stand by him.
How can they, knowing the terrible damage he has caused to so many young girls?
Sadly, I suspect denial is the only way they can cope. It’s not hard to understand a wife ignoring the evidence rather than confronting the fact that she’s lived a lifetime with a monster and that her entire married life has been a lie.
With any cheating husband, it’s often not that the wife didn’t know, it’s that she didn’t want to know.
Besides, even if she had her suspicions about his philandering, Mrs Hall could never in her darkest nightmares have imagined the depth of her husband’s depravity. Sympathy will be in short supply, but her life is now as shattered as any of his victims.
All she can do is try to keep her family together and protected from the terrible shame her husband has brought upon them.
More... Stuart Hall's teen victims demand BBC probe into 'Savile-style' abuse BBC predator Stuart Hall's £2million home is handed over to wife 'to protect his fortune' BBC bosses 'knew all about Hall': Echoes of Savile as Corporation comes under pressure to hold second inquiryWhatever punishment 83-year-old Hall is handed, it will be little compared with the life sentence of disgrace and humiliation they will endure.
For more than 50 years, he fooled the public that he was a great family man. But the ones he fooled the most were those closest to him.
How sickening. How sad.
Fighting for real freedomThree Afghan interpreters who worked with British troops are fighting for the right to settle in the UK. There are 600 more who will benefit if they win their test case.The interpreters claim that they have had death threats from the Taliban for assisting ‘the enemy’.Yet while I sympathise with the fear that hangs over them, surely the same threat applies to the thousands of Afghans who work as police officers, politicians or soldiers in the new regime.The whole point of this war was to make Afghanistan safe for its own people, not for them to seek a new life in Britain.
Apprentice at life Reflection: Karren Brady has said that a brain aneurysm in 2006 made her reassess her life and realise that her husband and two children were the most important things in her lifePromoting the new series of The Apprentice, Karren Brady says a brain aneurysm in 2006 made her reassess her life and realise that her husband and two children were the most important things in her life.
They live in the West Midlands while she lives in London from Monday to Thursday. When not filming The Apprentice, she is vice-chairman of West Ham United football club, a consultant to two major companies, a columnist in two newspapers and an author.
I admire her drive, but in terms of getting her work-life balance right, I fear Karren is still something of an apprentice herself.
Just as Alan Titchmarsh bemoans the fact that young people don’t do gardening any more, Prince Harry comes to the rescue. He’s announced that he will design his very own garden for the Chelsea Flower Show. Rumours that he simply misheard an invitation to impress Chelsey with his colourful bedding techniques have yet to be confirmed.Mad Men’s sumptuous flame-haired siren Christina Hendricks says her mother taught her to feel good about her appearance and never worry about looking big or feeling fat. Now 37, Christina says: ‘I’m completely comfortable with my body.’ How refreshing, in an age when most beautiful women disingenuously complain about their looks. And what a relief for millions of men that she has no intention of ever reducing the most famous curves on earth. Thank goodness the Attorney General has intervened after a father of three who abused two young girls was let off with a suspended sentence. The original trial judge concluded that jail would harm the man’s family. Not half as much as this vile pervert has harmed his victims and their families.An American company claims to have invented a man’s shirt that can be worn for 100 days without needing to be washed while still remaining fresh and fragrant. Most teenage boys think they’ve discovered that already.
She has been much criticised for sponging off her big sister’s celebrity, so it’s good to see Pippa following Kate’s example and throwing herself into charitable works, supporting a school for profoundly deaf children.Pippa even did a book signing of her cookbook, Celebrate, at the Mary Hare School, to which she will donate 10 per cent of the sales. That’ll be £5.50 then.
The Spice Girls thought their West End stage show would be a sell-out success, like Abba’s show Mamma Mia! which has grossed £1.3 billion worldwide.
Yet Viva Forever will close after just six months, losing its investors £5 million. Which just goes to show that even tried-and-tested recipes are only as good as their ingredients.
The Spice Girls were like junk food: even less appealing when reheated.
A thin caseMichael Jackson’s family have launched a £26 billion lawsuit against the star’s concert promoters, claiming he was driven to an early death by their lust for money.The court heard that in his final days, the singer was so ravaged by alcohol and prescription drugs he looked like a hospice patient. Such wasting away does not happen overnight, so his condition rather makes you wonder why no member of his family managed to help him when he was alive, rather than trying to cash in after his death.
After buying a £70,000 Porsche that resembled the one driven by his idol Steve McQueen, David Beckham reveals the actor has long been an inspiration for his style. The macho Bullitt star, once the King Of Cool, would turn in his grave to think he’d inspired the prancing, metrosexual, pants-posing Beckham.
Glamour magazine has decreed Breaking Dawn’s Kristen Stewart to be this year’s world’s best-dressed woman, leaving the Duchess of Cambridge in third place. What utter rot. Even at six months pregnant, the blooming Kate leaves the blood-sucking, husband-stealing Twilight vampire in the shadows.
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