Alice Evans is brave for publicly sharing her pain over her split from Ioan Gruffudd
I HAVE been where actress Alice Evans is now – feeling angry, distraught and heartbroken after discovering the man you once loved no longer loves you back. The memory of that exact moment your bubble was burst is momentous and crushing. I remember texting as many friends as possible to let them know just how […]
I HAVE been where actress Alice Evans is now – feeling angry, distraught and heartbroken after discovering the man you once loved no longer loves you back.
The memory of that exact moment your bubble was burst is momentous and crushing.
I remember texting as many friends as possible to let them know just how vile he was.
It was before Twitter was popular, but if it happened now I would definitely have got on social media and let rip with an angry post.
As I have so few followers, I’m confident I would have been able to delete it whenever I wanted without worrying a screenshot had been shared.
But that was not the case for mum-of-two Alice, who told her 55,000 followers that husband Ioan Gruffudd — star of Hornblower and Liar — was leaving her.
At 10.25pm she wrote: “Sad news. My beloved husband/soulmate of 20 years, Ioan Gruffudd, has announced he is leaving his family, starting next week.
“Me and our young daughters are very confused and sad. We haven’t been given a reason except that he ‘no longer loves me’. I’m so sorry.”
The tweet later disappeared.
The next morning, she wrote: “I didn’t delete the tweet from a few hours ago about him leaving. He did. From my account.
“And hell yes, when I am being gaslit and mentally tortured then hell yes I will wash my linen in public.”
Ioan may well have deleted the first post to protect himself — or Alice — from abuse. The second message was deleted, too.
Alice was brave to update her followers a second time. Some people bad-mouthed her for making the very damning accusations in public, and if they are false then, yes, she could be in trouble.
But if there was gaslighting and mental torture, why shouldn’t she, as she puts it, wash her dirty linen in public? She has built up followers on Twitter and Instagram who constantly engage with her about her life in California.
They love the fact she is “so real” and compliment her on her furniture renovation projects, the achievements of her daughters and her excitement when her husband returns home after months working away.
She turned to them during the good times — and now the bad.
They gave her support. She told one: “I have lost my mind.”
‘DIFFICULT’ TIME
Many just told her how much they adored her. Which probably means a lot to her right now.
The couple later put out a joint statement saying it was a “difficult” time. I’d call that an understatement.
The Sun told how Ioan may have grown close to another woman while working away for long stints in Australia.
There is no evidence to suggest he was unfaithful but, whatever has really gone on, Alice is clearly in turmoil.
I just hope she never regrets her online posts. They come from a deadly combination of raw nerves and anger.
And even though they are deleted, they can never fully disappear because too many people have seen and shared them. They can never be unsaid.
That to me is the scary thing about social media. And why people need to be careful about what they say, when they say it and who they say it to.
WOUNDS WILL HEAL
One innocent post can go viral and change the course of your life forever.
I bet right now that Alice would love to go online and update us. But at some point in the future her wounds will hopefully heal and that initial body blow of pain will fade.
Then, she may regret ever posting them in the first place. Social media can be fun. During lockdown it’s a life-saver — a way to socialise and to occupy your time, by snooping on others.
It’s a way to keep up with current affairs around the world as well as chatting to friends. Some people even manage to find love on it.
Right now there is not a lot of love left between Alice and Ioan. And it would be pretty impossible for them to book a few discreet Relate sessions and patch up their marriage.
Celebrity Twitter spats never really end well. Look at Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
He hit out so badly about his wife and mother-in-law that friends said it was impossible to save their marriage — and Kim hates the fact their children will one day read the posts.
One day Alice and Ioan’s daughters, aged 11 and seven, will no doubt read her posts, too.
I just hope the couple are able to sit down with them face to face to explain what is happening in their family — before Twitter does.
Let’s roll with jabs and jobs boosts
ISN’T it brilliant that there is a new Covid jab for Britain that is effective in 89.3 per cent of cases . . . and even works on the Kent and South African variants?
The vaccine from US firm Novavax is being produced in Stockton-on-Tees and is likely to be approved next month.
Plus there’s another promising vaccine from French firm Valneva that is being made in Livingston, West Lothian. Its production will keep people in jobs and help with our battle against the virus. Plus it brings the positivity we all need so badly right now.
That’s why the German regulator’s attempt to claim the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab shouldn’t be used on over-65s – because there isn’t enough proof it works – stinks.
We would all like a bit more data, years more research and testing. But time isn’t a luxury we have right now.
Boris Johnson hit back, saying: “Our own regulators have said it produces an immune response in all age groups. So I’m very confident in it.”
So am I. Let’s face it, they don’t just approve something for the fun of it.
Back in November, I visited the Oxford University team who created and tested the vaccine. They were utterly amazing.
INSPIRED, ASSURED
They have given everything to get a record-breaking result, working around the clock, missing out on seeing their young children and families . . . all for us.
I interviewed the woman who filled the first batch of the vaccine, plus the amazing doctor involved in writing the protocol for the trial’s execution, plus recruiting and screening volunteers.
But it was when Sarah Gilbert, who created the formula, explained to me exactly how it was made that I was really reassured.
She told me: “The prep work was already there. We’d worked on MERS, which is also a coronavirus, so all we did was repeat the stages and instead add the genetic code for the spike protein from this coronavirus to make it.
“At every stage, we saw what we expected. We didn’t get to testing efficacy on MERS but we knew it was safe and created an immune response. This vaccine isn’t rushed. We’ve effectively been making it for a decade.”
I know very little about science but these people do. I was inspired and assured by them.
And if my 72-year-old dad gets offered that vaccine, I will be delighted.
Freaky French make-up
I HAVE always admired Demi Moore: Her glowing skin, her amazing figure, the way she looks so hot at 58.
Unlike many celebrities, she looks totally natural.
You can’t tell whether or not she’s had any tweaks done to help her defy age.
But on Wednesday she strutted down the catwalk at Paris Fashion Week with severely pulled-in cheeks, looking like she was sucking on a lemon and sparking rumours of surgery.
I hope it’s just some sort of freaky French make-up.
Kinky problem with Fiona
FIONA Bruce sounds refreshingly down to earth.
The Question Time host found out she had featured in a kinky problem in our very own Dear Deidre column.
A reader wrote in saying her husband wanted her to role-play as the presenter and newsreader.
Instead of taking offence, Fiona says she nearly fell off her chair laughing.
No tattoo regrets
LET’S hope the marriage between 21-year-old Brooklyn Beckham and his fiancée Nicola Peltz, 26, goes well . . . or the large tattoo he’s had done on the back of his neck, dedicated to her, really will become a pain.
Worth a watch
I’M gutted I didn’t see the Royal Family documentary – banned 50 years ago because it was so embarrassing for Buckingham Palace – which briefly cropped up online but was removed this week by YouTube.
If something is banned by Her Majesty, you know it is worth a watch.
Hand on a minute
HOW outrageous that a property maintenance company in Wales could be snubbed for a business grant by their local council because they are called Handymen. And not, say, Handypeople.
Boss James Squire-Wood, 23, says council officials have recommended blocking his application for £1,000 aid on the grounds of gender discrimination.
The world has gone mad. At a time like this, what pen-pusher wants to turn down this loan?
Just take a bit off the cop
I HAD to laugh watching the video on The Sun’s website of eight Covidiots fleeing the Euphoria Tanning Hair & Beauty salon in Cwmbran, South Wales, during a police raid.
As they scarpered, you could see one still had dye on her roots.
The owner has rightly been fined £1,000 for breaching coronavirus regulations.
I do have a bit of sympathy, though, as I’d love to get my hair done – and I can’t wait for the moment hairdressers can work again.
And to be fair, the owner didn’t sign up to being a pillar of society . . . unlike, say, a police officer.
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No fewer than 31 Met police queued up at Bethnal Green police station to have their barnets chopped by a professional barber this month.
They’ve all been fined. And so they should be.
What a cheek to think they are above the law. To protect and serve, they don’t need a short back and sides.
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