by Matt Hancock has said that telling his ex-wife Martha Hoyer Millar about his affair before it was publicized was the “worst conversation” he’s had in his life.
The former health secretary, who resigned after the relationship with assistant Gina Coladangelo was made public, recalled the consequences that followed after being told that the details of the extramarital affair would be published in The sun.
Photographs of Hancock embracing Coladangelo at his workplace at a time when social distancing guidelines were still in place caused a huge outcry as people accused him of breaking his own rules.
In a series of “pandemic diaries” for the Daily mailHancock wrote that he received a call from The sun editor Victoria Newton telling him they were going to publish the photos.
The deputy – recently appeared on I’m a celebrity… get me out of here! – he said that “he immediately understood what I had to do”.
“I had to tell Martha right away, because it had to come from me and no one else,” she wrote. “I also knew I had to tell the kids. It would be incredibly painful, but I couldn’t hide from them forever.”
Hancock added that her family “deserved to know” about her relationship before it came out in the paper.
“Having the secretary of health for a husband or father during a global pandemic has been incredibly difficult for the family and I feel miserable,” she admitted.
The politician also denied having broken the rules of social distancing during his relationship with Coladangelo, because “nothing happened between us until May, after the legal restrictions ended”.
After speaking to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Hancock said he was in “complete turmoil” as he returned to the home he shared with Martha to speak with her.
“It was – and remains – the worst conversation of my life,” she wrote.
Hancock, who was suspended as an MP for joining I’m a celebrityshe recently claimed that falling in love with Coladangelo meant her “political judgment was wrong.”
He hoped the British public would forgive him for a “human error” in starting his relationship, which was a “failure of leadership”.
This week, Hancock also blamed infected nursing home staff for bringing the Covid virus into their workplaces, which has claimed the lives of thousands of seniors during the pandemic.
In an earlier diary entry for the Daily mailwrote that only a small fraction of the cases were caused by his decision to discharge patients from hospital without testing.
