{"id":196038,"date":"2025-11-23T13:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T13:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/196038\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T13:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T13:32:12","slug":"alexandra-shulman-i-was-furious-when-my-ex-husband-hijacked-a-family-wedding-by-bringing-his-new-girlfriend-theres-a-lesson-people-are-missing-in-family-row-between-holly-ramsay-and-adam-peaty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/196038\/","title":{"rendered":"ALEXANDRA SHULMAN: I was furious when my ex-husband hijacked a family wedding by bringing his new girlfriend. There’s a lesson people are missing in family row between Holly Ramsay and Adam Peaty…"},"content":{"rendered":"

AS Adam Peaty<\/a> and Holly Ramsay\u2019s forthcoming wedding arrangements have shown, there\u2019s nothing more likely to exacerbate family tensions than a marriage. Their tiff really is a humdinger.<\/p>\n

Peaty\u2019s mother Caroline was not invited to the hen-do, nor has she been invited to the wedding, provoking accusations from her side of snobbery and emotional cruelty.<\/a> Even her chosen colour of dress (cream) has been cited as a source of tension.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an extreme case, for sure, but many of us know from our own experience that a wedding is a hotbed of potential drama. Who\u2019s invited, who will attend, who gives the speeches, who\u2019s paying for what. Nowadays, when so many families are a series of moving parts, there are far more opportunities for a fallout.<\/p>\n

Some years back, my stepdaughter Emma was married in London<\/a>. We had a big party in my house the night before the wedding. The guests included many of her fiance\u2019s family; Emma\u2019s mother; sisters of her mother\u2019s next husband; Emma\u2019s father \u2013 my ex-husband Paul \u2013 and our son.<\/p>\n

Everything was going surprisingly smoothly considering the emotional complexities of the layered families. That is, until the wedding day.<\/p>\n

It was then that my ex-husband announced he was bringing his girlfriend to the reception \u2013 a girlfriend whom I had no idea existed but who had apparently been involved in his life for months. Although we had been divorced for years, I was completely thrown.<\/p>\n

Not by the fact he had a girlfriend \u2013 I was delighted about that \u2013 but because all his children, including my son, knew about her existence but I\u2019d had no idea. Paul was clearly concerned I would mind about her since he\u2019d kept her hidden from me all that time. But it made the fact he chose the wedding for the big reveal even more eccentric.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The forthcoming wedding of Holly Ramsay and Adam Peaty has been overshadowed by a spat with the swimmer’s mother<\/p>\n

I was furious. Of course I was curious to see her, but I resented the fact that, for me, the day had been hijacked by his crazy decision to bring her.<\/p>\n

When she arrived she looked as uneasy as you might expect, but we were both adults and made the best of it. And, as it was Emma\u2019s wedding, I wasn\u2019t about to make a fuss.<\/p>\n

The Peatys should probably have done the same and kept quiet, but that\u2019s weddings for you. No event is more likely to stir up trouble.<\/p>\n

\u2019Tis not the season to flash those abs<\/p>\n

\"Lily <\/p>\n

Lily Allen was happy to show off her abs<\/p>\n

Just as winter means we no longer have to worry about the condition of our exposed arms, a new part of the female anatomy comes under the spotlight \u2013 our abs.<\/p>\n

Of course I\u2019m jealous of the women who have them.<\/p>\n

I thought Lily Allen looked glorious in her bralet and bare midriff at New York\u2019s CFDA Fashion Awards. And then there\u2019s the close to super-human Trinny Woodall, whose dedication to daily exercise has given her astonishingly pronounced ribs \u2013 as showcased in the new issue of Women\u2019s Health.<\/p>\n

My own abs have long been disguised under several layers of fat. Indeed, I don\u2019t remember us ever being closely acquainted. Even when I was younger, I never had the discipline to achieve that washboard stomach look.<\/p>\n

But am I alone in wishing we could spend these next few months in delightful hibernation, letting our bodies just settle in with some extra winter pounds under a cosy jumper?<\/p>\n

There is a season… and this is a time to stop worrying about how our stomachs look.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m heartily sick of this Lemsip diet<\/p>\n

Like much of the population, I\u2019ve been suffering from a heavy cold all week. In general, I\u2019m one for pushing on through, unless I\u2019m running a high fever, but this cold eventually floored me.<\/p>\n

When I haven\u2019t been brewing another Lemsip or trying to find an extra blanket, I\u2019ve been wondering at what point you\u2019re sick enough to admit defeat.<\/p>\n

According to the Office for National Statistics<\/a>, the average sick leave for women is 2.8 days a year and 1.5 for men.<\/p>\n

These figures strike me as highly unlikely. I don\u2019t think I know a<\/p>\n

single person who takes only a couple of days off work for ill health. Far from it. There are quite a few people who regard a week or so as part of their annual leave entitlement \u2013 an off-the-record extension of holiday pay \u2013 whether they are sick or not.<\/p>\n

My boyfriend is a great one for what he calls \u2018lying low\u2019 at the slightest onset of a heavy cold, behaviour which infuriates me.<\/p>\n

However, perhaps he\u2019s right when he says my refusal not to give in has just prolonged my miserable condition. I have only myself to blame.<\/p>\n

Who would police all-women carriages?<\/p>\n

After the attempted rape of a woman on a Paris commuter train last month, there has been a call for women-only carriages.<\/p>\n

I hate the backward-looking notion of segregation, but several late-night rail journeys have made me reconsider. The recent traumatic knife attack on a train outside Huntingdon showed just how trapped rail passengers can be during an assault, and as a woman travelling alone I\u2019ve frequently felt apprehensive and exposed.<\/p>\n

But while the choice of a women-only carriage seems an excellent idea, who would police it?<\/p>\n

Especially given the trend for driver-only trains.<\/p>\n

A Christmas puzzle that bamboozles me<\/p>\n

Despite decades of dealing with Christmas decorations, I still find it a challenge deciding when to install the tree. Is the second week of December too early to put it up? Will it shed needles and turn scrawny before the actual day?<\/p>\n

Then again, is the following week on the late side \u2013 short-changing the number of nights I can gaze at it, childishly enthralled by the twinkling lights?<\/p>\n

I know this is not a major problem when considering the state of the world, but it sure beats fretting about Ukraine and the Budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AS Adam Peaty and Holly Ramsay\u2019s forthcoming wedding arrangements have shown, there\u2019s nothing more likely to exacerbate family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[99200,118,12389,18,117,23192,19,17,85586,130,78554],"class_list":{"0":"post-196038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-adam-peaty","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-debate","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-holly-ramsay","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-lily-allen","17":"tag-london","18":"tag-trinny-woodall"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115599268389764095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}