After almost two decades of a marriage dogged by text-affair rumours, can the couple finally leave the past behind?
WORDS: ARIANA LONGSON. PHOTOS: INSTAGRAM @TESSDALY, ALAMY, SHUTTERSTOCK, NEWS LICENSING
TESS AND VERNON
Marriage is a work in progress.’ Those are the arguably telling words of Strictly’s Tess Daly. The presenter, who has been married to Vernon Kay for 19 years, has previously opened up about the tough realities of relationships. And while her career may be at an all-time high – she’s fronted the BBC dancing show for almost two decades and recently released her first wellbeing book, 4 Steps to a Happier, Healthier You – has Tess been hiding years of hurt?
In a rare insight into her private life, the star, 54, revealed, ‘All marriages have their moments. Vernon and I are just people, at the end of the day.’
The couple’s schedules are hectic, and work commitments have seen them spending more and more time apart. A source close to the couple says, ‘Tess is busier than ever and while Vernon is incredibly proud of her, it’s understandably hard because it means they’ll be spending less time together.’
It’s not only Tess who is busy. After his stint on I’m a Celebrity… in 2020, Vernon has bagged a number of new gigs, including replacing Ken Bruce on his Radio 2 show and regularly filling in on This Morning.
Difficult times
In September the pair are on track to celebrate 20 years of marriage, but things have been far from plain sailing for Tess and Vernon. Cast your minds back to 2010, when news broke that one of telly’s favourite couples were caught up in an ‘affair’ scandal. Headlines screamed, Vernon’s text sex with page 3 girl, and column inches were filled with details any wife would find unbearable.
The star had been caught red-handed sending flirty messages to model Rhian Sugden, which led to a public apology to his family for his ‘foolish and stupid decisions’. He admitted, ‘Tess is extremely upset about this and we’re working through it.’
Tess has mostly remained tight-lipped about the situation, while Vernon vowed, ‘I’m never going to do it again,’ live on Radio 1.
But in 2016 – six years later – he was found to be messaging the model again. Rhian, now 36, later admitted, ‘[it was] nothing more than a close friendship and flirty messages,’ and said she would never have taken the situation further, adding, ‘It should never have got to the stage it did.’
And Vernon was quick to shut down the stories, saying, ‘I recognise how it may look when messages are pulled out of context but there was never any inappropriate intent to our communication, I was mere
