Extra trains for diversion route between Manchester and Mirfield
The line between Huddersfield and Stalybridge will remain open for the coming weeks, but TPE has warned that train services near Manchester are expected to be busy on the weekends of 12/13 and 19/20 July due to engineering works.It advised customers to plan ahead, particularly those attending Oasis' run of shows at Heaton Park.The operator said while Huddersfield Station is closed, diverted trains would make additional calls at Hebden Bridge, Sowerby Bridge, Castleton and Brighouse.Rail replacement bus services will be in place between Brighouse and Huddersfield.About £100m has been spent on improving diversionary routes under the TRU programme, the company said.James Richardson, TRU managing director, said this meant engineers could complete upgrades "safely and on time".He said: "We're really proud how these routes and services keep people on the move during disruption. We're committed to delivering a more resilient railway for the future."TPE said the upgrade programme would bring faster journey times, improved accessibility at stations, and more frequent and reliable trains.
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an hour ago
- Times
22 of the best treehouse stays in the UK
There's nothing quite like climbing a ladder or crossing a rope bridge as you approach your cosy perch for the night to zhuzh up some childhood nostalgia. But there are plenty of other reasons to book a stay in a treehouse — whether it's soaking yourself in nature and birdsong, unplugging from modern technology, or admiring the way these woodland homes allow their owners' architectural and artistic creativity to flow more naturally than it would in a commercial hotel. And nowadays you don't have to sacrifice creature comforts either, as many come equipped with swanky coffee machines and sound systems. Thanks to acres of pristine woodland and a legacy of craftsmanship, the UK is one of the best places to find tranquil tree-hugging boltholes. Follow our guide to the best treehouse stays in the UK. This article contains affiliate links, which may earn us revenue £ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 8 This contemporary-styled treehouse in North Yorkshire is perfect for big families or groups of friends. It sleeps up to eight people across a three-bedroom main cabin and secret separate pod accessed via its own bridge. There's super-fast wi-fi so you can host a film night, and the kitchen, equipped with a Nespresso coffee machine, dishwasher and large fridge-freezer, could be straight out of a showroom. The little details have been considered too, like soft bath robes for stepping out of the outdoor hot tub. It's part of a wider holiday camp which offers in-cabin spa treatments, home-delivered meals and kayak or cycle hire. • Best hotels in Yorkshire £ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 2 At this treehouse you can play act at being lord of the manor by taking your very own boat out for a row on your private lake. Inside, the property is similarly full of sweet touches and the hosts even provide milk and breakfast cereals on arrival in case you don't have time to pick some up. But if it's pure luxury you're after, be warned: this is not it. The treehouse is totally off-grid, so fresh drinking water comes from a bowser, the cooking facilities are a gas camping stove, and if you need the loo, you'll have to head to the composting loo among the trees. Oh and there's no shower. It is, however, well located with knockout views. Both Dartmoor National Park and the rugged north Devon coast are a short hop away. • Cornwall v Devon: which is better? ££ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 5 A country house hotel for our times, Wildhive Callow Hall, outside Ashbourne, has an indoors-outdoors approach that extends to the accommodation. As well as 15 bedrooms in the main house (appropriately decorated in soft botanical colours and leafy fabrics) there are 11 one-bedroom suites peppered through the woods. For ultimate woodland escapism, however, the ones to book are the hotel's two treehouses. They're geared more towards self-catering than the one-bedroom Hives, with open-plan sitting rooms and kitchens, outdoor copper baths, two en suite bedrooms each and a pup-friendly policy. • Lake District v Peak District: which is better? £ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 10 If walkers and mountain bikers go down to the woods at Garwnant they will be in for a big surprise. As well as the kingfishers and otters they're used to spotting at Coed Taf Fawr — the large forest area that Garwnant belongs to — they will see much larger visitors; Forest Holidays opened a site here in 2023, covering 400 acres and including three Golden Oak treehouses. These four-bedroom cabins on stilts have a further treehouse suite reached via a rope bridge. Looks-wise they veer more towards Dunelm than Grand Designs, but they're an oak-solid option for multigenerational groups. • Best beaches in Wales £ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 2 This wonky house at the top of an old oak looks like something that's been magicked together by one of the fairies in Brian Froud's paintings. Shelves built into the tree's gnarled trunk, straw-bale walls, off-kilter staircases winding up into the branches, a skylit master bedroom accessed via a steel ladder — you'll find them all here, as well as hand-carved benches, a cob fire and a wood-fired Japanese-style hot tub. It's properly off-grid, with a composting loo, solar lighting and zero wi-fi — but there are few more bewitching places near the Welsh borders. • Most luxurious places to stay in Herefordshire ££ | Sleeps 4 With its conical roof, arched windows and lofty cedar rafters, there's a hint of Harry Potter about this charming little treehouse near Mayfield. A winding boardwalk leads up to the cabin, lodged in its own area of private woodland. Inside, there's space for a lounge (with sofa and wood-burner), and a light-dappled kitchen and bathroom, while the master bedroom is just about big enough for a family of four, with a couple of extra beds in the loft (accessed by ladder). The decked terrace makes an ideal spot for breakfast, with birdsong providing a bucolic soundtrack. • Best luxury hotels in Sussex £ | Sleeps 2 The outside may whisper 'Squirrel Nutkin' but this treetop hideaway in Anglesey is surprisingly slick inside: its fitted kitchen, modern wood-burner and galaxy of downlights wouldn't look out of place in a conventional holiday cottage. Roughly circular in shape and ringed by a wooden deck, it sits overlooking fields at the end of the owners' garden. Inside, the standout feature is a central glass column that frames the branches of an oak tree: it's a handy reminder to pick up the binoculars and bird-watching guide provided and explore the local wildlife. • Best things to do in Wales £ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 4 Tarzan would get a bit more luxury than he bargained for if he were to shimmy up the branches into this Devon treetop retreat, which has a hot tub, pizza oven and copper bath tub on wheels (soak indoors or slide out for an alfresco wallow). Set on a 20-acre estate within the Unesco-designated North Devon Biosphere reserve, the cosy timber hideout is tailor-made for parents seeking romance. As well as a king-size bed with a view, there's a second bedroom with bunk beds and a large projector screen for post-pizza cinema nights. • Best campsites in Cornwall £ | Sleeps 4 Imagine a human-sized bird box shaped a bit like ET's head and you get a pretty close picture of Living-Room's arboreal abodes. Its six two-bedroom treehouses are perched among oak, larch and Scots pine trees outside Machynlleth. There's also a separate treehouse shop. Spiral staircases have been built for five of the treehouses; their rustic style is so in keeping with the surroundings they look as though they've been woven by squirrels. Enjoy bluebell-fringed walks, spring water showers and the chance to do some dark-sky gazing just that bit closer to the stars. ££ | Sleeps 2-4 Cotswolds tree-huggers have been able go one step further and embrace their inner tree-sleeper since six treehouses opened in 2023 at Elmore Court, a sustainable wedding and events venue just west of Gloucester. Don't expect tipsy partygoers to conga through the nearest clearing late at night though. Sleeping between two and four, the high-rise cabins speckle the edge of the estate's woods, well away from wedding parties. Gaze out from your wraparound deck while you wait for your pre-ordered breakfast hamper to arrive, and you can soak up tranquil scenes of the estate's rewilded land. £ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 4 This heart-shaped treehouse perches amid Laverock Law's handful of holiday rentals, inland from Holy Island. Crafted from local wood and sheep's wool, it's peppered with low-impact luxuries like organic bedding, hand-thrown crockery and homemade cake. Romantics can wallow in sunrises, sunsets and starry skies with the help of skylights, portholes and even a little heart-shaped pane in the front door, while a bunk room and a sister business offering family-friendly activities such as cooking classes and wild walks make it a good family option too. £ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 10 A prow-like RIBA award-winning house, wedged into a wooded slope on the oak-lined Chevithorne Barton estate, Verte is one for those who like to enjoy the high life — in all senses. This towering larch-clad lair dispenses with whimsy in place of elegant, contemporary design and luxury fittings. A circular fireplace takes centre stage if you want to boost the building's geothermal heating, and there's a Sonos sound system. Wood is the focus, though; as well as bosky views and that larch cladding, the house's dining table and spalted stairs are both made from a storm-felled beech tree. £ | Sleeps 2 A collection of hobbit house-like burrows, summer houses and pint-sized cottages on a farm near Dunblane, Craighead is as close as Perthshire gets to Tolkien's Shire. Among its storybook rentals is Ash Tree Howf (not a Hobbitish spelling of house but a Scots word for a haunt), built into an old ash tree. While some treehouses are essentially suites on stilts this is the real deal, its hand-crafted, higgledy-piggledy form topped by little shingle-roofed turrets and embellished by viewing platforms spinning off into the tree's branches. The enchanted forest approach continues inside with a sink set on twig-like legs and a dedicated star-gazing window. • Best unusual places to stay in the UK• Best Airbnbs in the UK ££ | Sleeps 2 Herons, hares and showboating pheasants are amongst the wildlife that call Red Hurworth Farm home. There are plenty of places to spot them during a stay here; on a walk around the wildflower-bracketed reservoir as the sun dips or — perhaps more tempting — as you soak from your hot tub in one of the farm's two treehouses, Nuthatch and Wren, which overlook a natural pond. Despite being cocooned by fields as far as the eye can see, the cedar-clad treehouses are ultra-modern inside with Sonos speakers, underfloor heating and a basket of treats including popcorn and hot chocolate. Should you wish to overlook the reservoir you can also book one of the lakeside lodges — complete with hot tubs and swish, suspended log burners — instead. ££ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 4 Treading a neat line between blingy and bucolic, this two-bedroom treehouse may be off-grid, but solar power and bottled-gas heating mean it's not short on frills; on the decking there's a wood-fired hot tub and a zellige-tiled outdoor shower, while inside you'll find a huge stone bath, Minirig speakers and even a Nutribullet blender. Decorated in soft, muted tones, it has pops of colour to add a playful element, especially in the first floor 'tent' bedroom, which was designed by the interiors company Côte de Folk. It's accessed via a hatch and comes with billowing colour-block curtains and candy-striped bed linen. ££ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 2 Near Gargunnock, on the fringes of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, the four treehouses at Leckie may be clean-lined and contemporary in style but the big idea is minimal impact on the surrounding landscape as it transitions from traditional sporting and farming estate to a more wildlife-focused setting. Each treehouse is built into the canopies of sycamore or oak trees, using timber sourced from the estate, and air-source heat pumps provide heating and hot water. For an alternative warm-up, try a hike around the estate's Leckie Broch and waterfalls. • Most beautiful places in Scotland £ | Sleeps 2 You don't need a particularly good head for heights to stay at this new tin-roofed treehouse a few miles northwest of Penrith. Set on a working farm on the fringes of the Lake District, its position part-way up a hillside means you can walk in at ground level but enjoy sweeping views from its lofty front decking as the land drops away below sturdy birch balustrades. There's a homely, handmade feel to the furnishings: an outdoor bathtub is filled from taps upcycled from copper piping and kitchen cupboards are colourfully mismatched. • Best campsites in the Lake District ££ | Sleeps 2 They've taken the arboreal theme and run with it at the Treehouse at Bainland Lodge Retreats. One of more than 30 different accommodation options in an upmarket 45-acre holiday park, it's a true dendrophile's den with cosy timber walls, a hot tub with a view of the park's lake and trees, and the rustic good looks of a kind of souped-up Swiss Family Robinson homestead. You'll find a restaurant, bar, swimming pool, gym, farm shop and range of bookable activities on the site, which is within walking distance of Woodhall Spa; for a night out on terra firma, take in a screening at the village's legendary Kinema in the Woods. ££ | Sleeps 2 One for those who grew up reading about the mice in the Brambly Hedge children's books, whose multi-storey country houses were hewn into the trunks of old trees. The Old Oak is built around the boughs of a mighty old Essex oak tree, with some of those boughs snaking up through the floors and walls, and staying here is as close as you'll get to a visit to the Old Oak Palace of Lord and Lady Woodmouse. There may not be pantries stuffed with acorns or thistledown carpets, but there is a roof terrace for stargazing, a bath with a view and twin hammocks on the balcony for gazing up at spinning leaves. £ | DOG-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 2 Exeter may be within 40 minutes' drive, but city life feels magically far away when you gaze from the balcony of this small treehouse cabin just south of Exmoor. Overlooking 24 acres of woodland, it's perched on the edge of what was once a quarry. In the 200 years since they stopped extracting iron here, nature has reclaimed the land, turning the tumbling landscape below into a rainbow of dappled greens: a view best soaked up from the outdoor bath. One other important feature is the cabin's accessibility. Unlike many treehouses, this one is fully wheelchair-friendly; there's even a hoist for that outdoor bath. £££ | Sleeps 2 It's all about the thoughtful details at this simple A-framed treehouse, surrounded by two acres of private woodland. Featured on Channel 4's Extraordinary Escapes with Sandi Toksvig, a barrel sauna, outdoor bath and cocktail trolley set a celebratory tone while the mezzanine bedroom's ceiling-to-floor window allows for easy leaf-peeping, or bird-watching, from bed. Home-made sloe gin and shortbread are provided, and breakfast hampers and BBQ boxes can be ordered in advance. Go wild swimming in the Wye, visit nearby Tintern Abbey or light the floating fire and snuggle into the green velvet sofa to gaze at the flames. ££ | Sleeps 2 The chic, minimalist Pinwheel is a treat for architecture lovers with a layout designed to mimic a child's pinwheel toy. It's in an area of outstanding natural beauty and one-way glass allows guests to appreciate wildlife up close without scaring animals off. The compact space ticks plenty of boxes, including shard-like floor-to-ceiling windows that give views onto the leafy surroundings while maintaining privacy, as well as a wood-fired pizza oven, a terrace with a swing and a hot tub. You can reach the Jurassic Coast in 25 minutes by car; and if you fancy a change from self-catering, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage is a 20-minute drive away. Additional reporting by Marianna Hunt, Yasmin Choudhury and Lucy Perrin • Best luxury glamping in the UK• Best romantic weekend breaks with a hot tub in the UK• Best campsites in the Cotswolds What's your favourite UK treehouse stay? Please share in the comments below
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Illicit sex, secret affairs — the truth about our infidelity
By Anonymous My reasons for cheating are not at all noble and totally predictable for a man my age. I had been with my girlfriend since the first year at university. I am now 36. Last summer I could feel the future stretching out ahead of us and not in a good way. My girlfriend sometimes used to say, 'Do you think we've both had enough adventures to think about settling down?' Obviously she is now my ex but at the time we did everything together. Whenever Great Western Railway announces that it is running the London to Bath service with a reduced number of carriages I think of my short, intense love affair. The GWR Supersaver leaving Paddington station at 7.30pm is the first cheap evening train and is notorious for the driver announcement, 'Sorry, folks, they were supposed to give me nine carriages for this service but I only have five. Please be kind to one another and give up your seat if someone appears to need it more.' Last summer I was lucky enough to get a seat on the 7.30 but I gave it up to a young woman wearing a black orthopaedic boot. She looked otherwise extremely fit and healthy. In fact she was in incredible physical condition. She'd had a cycling accident. She accepted the seat but we were crammed close together and so we got talking. I think you know within two minutes whether there is something between you. She said, 'Thank you for the seat,' and the etiquette is that you look away, scroll on your phone. It could have ended there. • I had an affair — and I will take the secret to my grave But she asked me, 'Haven't I seen you on this train before?' We live in fraught, judgmental times when the signals between men and women are hotly discussed. I thought her question was an invitation to keep talking. The second signal came at Reading station, when the train overcrowding often thins out. The person next to her got off and I took the seat. Other seats were available but I took that one. When the snack trolley rumbled down the aisle we had a drink together. When you have an affair you cross the boundary way before you kiss or have sex. For me, buying those two small bottles of wine was it and I did it as though watching myself. I did it knowing that if my partner at home could see me clinking our plastic cups and laughing it would probably break her heart. I took her number and she took mine. We sort of denied even to ourselves what was going to happen. I cycle too and I said I'd talk to a friend about fixing her broken bike. 'Well, you definitely sound like the expert,' she said. 'Should I call you?' That is the exact moment when I thought, this person really likes me. I think we are going to have sex. My long-term girlfriend had me on the Find My feature on her iPhone so she could see exactly when I was heading from my office in central London to Paddington and then home to Bath. Nothing in my life was unpredictable. You'd think, in the world we live in, that might be good, reassuring, even, but there is a limit. Cycling is the one thing I do at weekends that makes me feel totally free. I was soon sending messages to my new friend asking how her ankle was doing. Sometimes I saw her on the train and within a few weeks we went out on a ride together. After that we enjoyed a weekend cycling trip in Wales. I purposely chose a place in the Black Mountains with bad phone signal. We didn't even get the bikes off the rack. I don't expect people to understand but having sex with a secret lover that no one in your family or wider social circle knows about is intoxicating. You can be the person you want to be, even pretend a little, especially if you know you are going to return to normality at some point. I got found out because a couple that my girlfriend and I were friendly with saw me on the train with my lover. I don't think we were even doing anything inappropriate at that moment except, apparently, I put my hand on my lover's shoulder as we shuffled down the busy carriage. The way she looked back and smiled at me was the clincher. The male half of the couple shrugged it off. The female party texted my girlfriend. Women know. By Victoria Richards When I watched footage of the Astronomer chief executive Andy Byron ducking down to shield himself from view after being caught in too-close contact with a colleague via a Coldplay 'kiss cam' (Byron, who is married — for now, at least — has since resigned), the first people I thought of were his wife and children, how they felt after their private grief was beamed across the globe. Betrayal is betrayal — it always hurts — but it hits differently when it's in the public eye. There's an added layer of horror and humiliation. You can't deal with your broken heart in private; you aren't granted the privilege of space to lick your wounds before announcing that you've broken up. Your agency is completely torn away. I should know. That's because I found out on live radio that the man I called my boyfriend — who had keys to my home, who fed my cat when I went on holiday, who bought gifts for my children, who spent New Year's Eve with me at my parents' flat, who once offered to drive around all night to find a pharmacy to get my son's emergency asthma medication — was living a double life. The woman he said he'd broken up with more than a year earlier wasn't his ex at all. He'd never moved out, like he said he had. They were very much still together — still living together. I heard her say so. She was on a radio show and I was listening — and I make no apologies for that. After all (and we've seen this played out in lurid, laugh-out-loud detail in Lena Dunham's Netflix hit Too Much, in which Megan Stalter's character, Jessica, develops an unhealthy obsession with her ex-boyfriend's new fiancée), it's normal to be a little … fascinated, say, with your partner's ex. Olivia Rodrigo wrote a song about it. But what I didn't expect her to say were the words 'my boyfriend', referred to in present tense, and to be talking about my boyfriend, also present tense. I gave him the chance to tell the truth, messaging him to report what I'd heard. 'That's interesting,' he said, implying that she might be in denial, poor thing. I almost believed it. But then I did what any good journalist would do and went straight to the source: his girlfriend. • Why we have affairs — secrets from the therapist's couch I messaged her myself. 'Hey,' I wrote. 'This is a bit awkward but I heard you say your 'boyfriend' on your show and I know who you're talking about — but we've been seeing each other ever since you broke up and he moved out from your flat. I was just wondering why you said that.' 'We didn't break up and he didn't move out,' she replied almost instantly. 'In fact, he's sitting right next to me right now. Let me ask him.' When she asked him he came back with the excuse that I was a girl who 'had a crush on him'. When pressed he admitted something had happened 'once'. Which is (almost) funny when you consider that I'd seen him so often I'd given him a key. As I swapped screenshots and time stamps with the other girlfriend and his web of lies unravelled, I discovered that I bore more than just a passing similarity to his 'ex'. In fact we were practically identical. We shared photos to prove it all: cards in his handwriting, messages claiming to be in one place when he was really with 'the other one'. We found out he'd left the same brand of underpants — one red, one blue — in my bathroom and at hers. That when I sent him a 'care package' after a family bereavement, it was delivered to a room he used for storage. That rather than wanting to be alone at the funeral, as he'd told me, he'd gone with her. That when he said he was 'in therapy', he meant couples therapy. It should probably come as no surprise, given how similar we are, that when I eventually met the other girlfriend we loved each other. And here's where our story is different from the classic 'cheater' tale: we dumped him and kept each other. Now, every April, we go for a candlelit dinner to mark the anniversary of the day I listened to her show. It's a new kind of love story. And one that, I hope, will be happy ever after. By Tom Nash I was 33 when I had an affair. I had been with my wife for ten years and we were having a few issues. We'd always been a passionate couple. When we did separate everybody was shocked: they never thought it would be us. But for the 18 months before the affair started we had been trundling along. I worked long hours in the City and tension had been building between us, over our extended family. We got to a point where we didn't know how to talk to each other without it descending, not into conflict, but quietness. I know for some couples it's the kids who get in the way. But not for us. We had the same parenting styles and all that. It was finances and wider family strains. These things can really take their toll. I met Donna on the train. We were commuters. We took the same inbound and outbound Intercity train each day. There was an instant spark. I remember thinking, I'm in trouble. It wasn't even a physical thing, though obviously that was there. Over the course of an hour's train journey we were talking as though we had known each other for decades. It transpired that we both walked from St Pancras to our offices, rather than using the Tube, to get our steps in. We had taken different routes but we began to take the same one. She was going through a separation and I would talk to her about my struggles. For the first several weeks we were just friends. It was an emotional affair before it was a sexual one. In between we did have that conversation, that there was clearly something there. I never thought I would be that person to cheat but I did. • The main reason we cheat on our partners — by a psychoanalyst For a while we tried to keep away from each other. We even agreed on alternative walking routes and different trains. But it was magnetic, we kept getting thrown back together. One of our trains would be late and the other person would wind up on the same platform. The secrecy was absolutely horrible. I loved and cared for my wife. She was one of the closest people in my life. I had a love for her just above the kind I felt for my parents. I absolutely hated myself, and more than anybody else could do. I would feel physically sick most days about who I had become and how weak I was. I felt awful covering my tracks. I had a panic attack at work one day and knew it was coming to a head. A little while after that I told my wife it was over. I didn't tell her about the affair straight away, which I regret. She said she had had her suspicions. I genuinely didn't want to hurt her. She was then told other people's versions of the truth, which were exaggerated and hurt her more. She deserved my accountability. We are great friends now but that only came with honesty. I'm now a divorce coach and work with people who have had affairs. Until you're in that situation you don't know how you're going to deal with it. You can stand there and say I would never do this, because I said that for years. I'm still with Donna now, eight years By Anonymous Six years ago I discovered that my husband of the time was having an affair. I look back at it now and realise that, of course, part of me had probably known beforehand that something was up but at the time I was deeply shocked. The level of betrayal I felt when his infidelity was uncovered is something I find heartbreaking even now. I loved him. I was faithful — devoted, even — and to find out that he was so lovingly intimate with another person … the pain is beyond words. So I have deep empathy for the wife and husband of the Coldplay 'kiss cam' couple. To have their marriage troubles exposed in such humiliating fashion only doubles the devastation. My husband was not exposed quite so publicly. His affair came to light because a friend of mine happened to be on holiday in Cornwall and there he was, in a tender embrace with someone who wasn't me. More than that, my friend told me — trying to be tactful but also wanting me really to hear the truth — that they looked very 'at ease' with each other. I then confronted my husband. At first he denied it but eventually, as I stacked up the evidence provided by my friend, he caved in and told me that he had been seeing a former girlfriend for the past five years. It wasn't just a fling, he explained, as if that made it any better. Of course I had chosen not to see what was right in front of me. He had locked his phone and changed his PIN a while back, saying that we all had the right to privacy. His behaviour, however, was so strange and distant that I did suspect something was going on. I just wasn't sure what. • I can't move on from her affair I had started going through his bank statements, which is something I don't feel very proud of. About six months before the affair was exposed I saw that he had sent some flowers from Interflora and they certainly hadn't come to me. But I'd got myself in a double bind — if I were to tell him I had gone through his bank statements, he'd be furious, so I couldn't say anything. I'd always known that he had a soft spot for this ex-girlfriend and I had felt threatened by their relationship. I had endlessly quizzed him about it and he had told me I was paranoid. The gaslighting became extreme and I began to think that I had lost my mind, that he was utterly devoted and faithful to me, and that I had gone slightly mad. So was it a relief to find out that I wasn't crazy? I would like to say yes but of course that wasn't the case. The fallout from affairs is horrific, as anyone who has been through such a situation knows. In my case it turned out that quite a few people had known, some of them only just before it was exposed. They told me afterwards that they had decided not to say anything as they felt the basis of our marriage was happy and that maybe I would shoot the messenger. At the time I felt so confused and didn't know what to think about this. Now, though, when I think whether I would have preferred not to have known, the honest answer is no. Once the affair was exposed it made me look much more clearly at our marriage and I realised how damaged it was. The affair was the tip of the iceberg. An untrustworthy person isn't just untrustworthy in one area of their life. Sometimes they're just someone who lives in a different reality to the rest of us. For quite a long time after my friend's reveal of what she'd seen, my world fell apart. After an affair is exposed there is endless questioning, damage, humiliation, guilt and shame. No one wins in this situation. But here's the upside: there is life afterwards, which is something the partners of the Coldplay couple may not feel right now. Either your marriage will rebuild in a way that is stronger or you'll be out of a fundamentally flawed relationship. It was those two nuggets of knowledge that helped me finally get over my marriage and move on. By Anonymous When I saw the video of the CEO on the Coldplay 'kiss cam' I thought, if you're going to cheat, get better at it. I slept with my married boss for about four years. I was 13 years younger than him. We managed to keep our affair completely secret. The secret element made the whole thing feel even hotter. The Coldplay couple shouldn't have been so obvious by ducking down as soon as the camera was on them. They should have just acted like everything was normal or hugged the other woman there next to them, because they made themselves look guilty. If they had not reacted, no one would have thought anything bad about it. If my boss and I had been on a kiss cam during the era that we were sleeping together and he had tried to duck, I would have been like, 'What are you doing?' My boss and I would only hang out after work or on work trips — he wouldn't text me on the weekend, like, 'Let's do something.' We would go for dinner around the corner from the office, just the two of us. We'd use the work card to pay for drinks and food. We were always subtle at the start of the night but then after a drink we'd get more obviously flirty and touchy-feely. But if another colleague had walked by the two of us looking cosy at dinner, we would have just acted like everything was normal and said hi, rather than freaking out like the Coldplay pair did. • I was five when my father had an affair, I'm still angry At one point during the affair he said, 'Maybe I'll come to your birthday,' and I said, 'I'd love you to come.' But then he didn't come. So I think that's the boundary — we only hung out at things that could have been passed off as work if someone saw us. He and I got on really well as friends before anything happened. The first time we went from friends to more was on a night out after work. Our colleagues had gone home and he and I were the last ones left at the bar. Suddenly he went in for a snog. It took me by surprise. He's conventionally good-looking but not my usual type and not someone I would have gone for. It is hot sleeping with your boss, especially when none of your colleagues in a meeting has any idea that the two of you are shagging. I would be mortified if anyone we worked with found out about us. There were times when we weren't as careful as we should have been around our colleagues on work trips. I'm sure my boss worried about people at work knowing about us too but he was more reckless than me. After we had slept together in a situation that was a bit risky, he'd ask: 'Why did you let me do that?' I'd reply, 'Well, you said it would be hot.' The affair didn't benefit my career and that's not why we were sleeping together. But if it had come out, people at work would have assumed I got favouritism or promotions because we were sleeping together, which I didn't. I feel bad for him because it must eat him up, having this whole secret side to his life. I've got the better side of the deal because I can talk to my friends about it if I need to. I've told a few of my female friends who I know wouldn't judge me and would never meet him. But he has to keep it under wraps. I don't think anyone would suspect anything was happening between us, partly because his social media is all about his family. There's loads of pictures of his wife and kids on his profile. It just goes to show that no one knows what goes on behind closed doors in a marriage. Morally it's not too hard for me to justify the affair to myself because I am someone who believes in open and non-monogamous relationships. Also, I'm not the one who is married. I also feel less guilty because I know that he and his wife are quite progressive. He has said they probably would go to a sex party and do some experimenting so they're not your average monogamous married couple. That said, his wife has no clue about us. He would never confess our affair to her because he broke her trust. By the end we were acting like we were a couple when no one else was around and I ended up catching feelings for him. I wasn't really making an effort to date other people at that time because I just wanted to hang out with him. So my love life wasn't really moving forward and I was a bit too invested in him. I quit that job and we stopped having sex when I left the company. I decided to leave the job partly because I was thinking, will this affair just keep going on for ever? We see each other occasionally as friends and, when we do, I can tell that the spark is still there between us. By Anonymous My infidelity drama had all the hallmarks of a five-star blockbuster. A woman from the past, a dramatic break-up in the rain, a ruthless betrayal and a very modern addition: an Instagram DM from a mystery ex. Four years ago, when I was 27 and almost a year into a relationship with a man called David whom I'd met on a dating app (another classic 21st-century plotline), I received a private message on social media from a lady I'd never met but knew about: David's ex-girlfriend. The ex — let's call her Kat — wanted to know if I was still seeing David. I corrected her: we'd upgraded from 'seeing' to 'boyfriend' several months ago. 'Oh,' she texted back. 'Well, we'd better have a call.' Work went out of the window. My housemate and I spent the rest of the day stewing over all the reasons she might want to speak to me, workshopping different ways I could answer the phone when she called. But I knew that exes don't get in touch to send their best wishes for your new relationship; they usually bring bad news and by now I'd learnt that the horrible washing machine feeling I got in my gut usually preceded a break-up. Eventually Kat rang, though the news was worse than I'd imagined. She and David had begun sleeping together recently. They'd done so three times, to be precise, all during weekends I'd been away, including the weekend after he'd told me he loved me. • Is adultery so wrong? What the divorce lawyer says about affairs Had he told her about me? Yes, she said. David had told her my name, my job, that 'it was just a bit of fun' — why do they always have to bash you? — and that I lived in London. It was this information that she used to sift through his followers on Instagram to find my profile and send me a message. Women, when they want to, have a way of finding out information that a McKinsey efficiency expert would admire. So why was she telling me now? It wasn't that 'girl code' had jolted her moral compass back into action — the reality was she'd just found out David had also been sleeping with her best friend. She was hurt and wanted to get her own back. Had I been asleep at the wheel or was he just a very good liar? I spent days going round in circles, questioning my sense of judgment until we had a dramatic showdown in the rain on the River Thames opposite Tower Bridge. It was tipping it down and we were both crying. It felt like a scene from Made in Chelsea. I remember an American tourist walking past and saying: 'Oh my gaaaad, that is the most dramatic break-up eh-vah.' He promised to go on some sort of redemption arc and get therapy (ugh at men who use therapy to recast themselves as a good person) but ultimately I had the best revenge. I'm very happily in love with a lovely new boyfriend. Last time I heard, David was back living at home with his parents.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Scrapping 'tourist tax' could unlock a £3.7billion Brexit boost, ministers told
Scrapping the 'tourist tax' could unlock a £3.7billion Brexit boost, ministers have been told. More than 400 business leaders have backed a Mail campaign to bring back the VAT refund scheme for foreign visitors, arguing it would encourage tourists to visit the UK. In a fresh plea, the Association of International Retail (AIR) has told the Government that scrapping the levy would make the UK 'the best place in the world for shopping' and support at least 73,000 new jobs in a Brexit victory. Bosses of firms including Boodles and F. Hinds called on Labour to urgently take a second look at the policy. Instead of spending money in Britain, tourists are flocking to Paris, Milan and Berlin, leaving these economies to reap the rewards at the UK's expense. But reinstating the exemption would mean the UK becomes the only European destination to offer rebates to 450 million EU customers, as well as tourists from elsewhere. Before the initiative was axed in 2021, tourists from outside the EU could receive a 20 per cent refund on purchases in the UK. Now the UK has left the EU and its customs union, EU residents would be able to shop tax-free alongside high-spenders from China and the US if the VAT exemption was restored. This would deliver an additional spend of at least £3.7billion, if VAT-free shopping by EU visitors was at the same level as Britons' spending in the EU last year. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been urged to prioritise boosting economic growth at this autumn's Budget amid fears last year's tax raid is stifling jobs and investment. Derrick Hardman, chair of AIR, which represents firms including Bicester Village and Heathrow Airport, said: 'With Britain no longer in the EU, we have the opportunity to become the best place in the world for shopping.' Michael Wainwright, chairman of luxury jeweller Boodles, said: 'We would encourage the Government to look at this urgently, as all the independent analysis... shows a new tax-free shopping scheme would more than pay for itself thanks to the extra spending that would be stimulated.' Campaign supporters include luxury brands Burberry, Mulberry and Harrods, as well as Primark and Marks & Spencer. Angela Rayner has clashed with Rachel Reeves over her calls for councils to able to charge tourists for hotel stays, it was claimed last night. The Deputy Prime Minister has argued in Cabinet for town halls to be given powers to raise the levies. But Treasury officials are opposed to the tax amid fears it would be a fresh blow to hospitality businesses already hit by Labour's tax raids in last year's Budget, the Daily Telegraph reported.
