Reading all the speculation about Olivia Attwood this week, I checked the old-fashioned paper diary on my old-fashioned wooden desk.
Was it 2026, as I had believed, or had there been a terrible error at the weekend, and instead of the clocks going forward an hour, they had accidentally been turned back to the 1950s?
Because from the furious tone of the responses to her ‘marriage’ breakdown, you’d think we were living in a world where it wasn’t normal for a woman to leave an apparently unfaithful partner.
Gasp as you discover that Attwood and Bradley Dack weren’t actually married, and had all along been living in sin!
Grimace as you learn that Olivia has been spotted kissing another man, whom she’s also not married to!
Tut along as ITV’s apparent ‘Golden Girl’ is reframed as a fallen woman, one who has taken us all for fools by pretending to be a nice lady with a husband!
And so on and so forth.
Forget Love Island, or The Only Way Is Essex. I feel like I’ve accidentally stumbled into a remake of Stepford Wives.
Olivia Attwood rose to fame after appearing on Love Island in 2017, and has since featured in everything from TOWIE to Loose Women
Attwood was spotted kissing her friend and fellow reality TV stalwart Pete Wicks earlier this year (pictured together at the BRIT Awards in 2025)
In case you haven’t been paying attention to the Attwood saga – perhaps you are more interested in the goings on in the Strait of Hormuz than you are by the myriad dramas on social media – let me bring you up to speed.
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (OK, Majorca), a woman became famous for reaching the final of Love Island. So enamoured of her were ITV – for the TV station was the true match she made through going on the show – that they put her in everything from TOWIE to Loose Women.
They also gave the 34-year-old a reality show with her long-term on/off boyfriend, second-division footballer Bradley Dack, who is to the beautiful game what the reality format is to factual television.
In 2023, the couple ‘wed’ in a lavish ceremony screened as part of the series Olivia Marries Her Match. But all was not as it seemed. In January this year, Attwood left the relationship, and shortly afterwards she was spotted kissing her friend and fellow reality TV stalwart Pete Wicks, sparking rumours she had cheated on Dack.
Then came the news that, like many young couples these days, Olivia and Bradley had not had a legal wedding in a licensed venue, and so they had never been husband and wife. The £30,000 dress, the eight-tier wedding cake, the 25,000 flowers… turns out, they were all for show.
The TV world is apparently very angry at Olivia, for it had gone to the trouble of giving her the Golden Girl title that had previously been bestowed on Holly Willoughby (no less!), and this is no way to bow down to your overlords, nor the viewing public.
But excuse me if I don’t join in with the righteous indignation at Attwood’s ‘sham’ marriage, which reeks of old-fashioned notions our great-grandparents might have had about women getting ideas above their stations. Plus, judging by her statement on Instagram, it’s Dack who was at the root of the apparent deceit.
Reports suggest the couple had planned to have a legal wedding to make it all official – this is normal for many couples who want to get married somewhere glamorous that doesn’t have a licence, as shown by the revelation this week that presenter Stacey Solomon and actor husband Joe Swash are not legally married – but Olivia called it off when she apparently discovered she was being cheated on.
Attwood and Dack’s wedding was a TV moment as part of the series Olivia Marries Her Match
In her statement, she wrote: ‘I have stood by Brad for the last ten years during which he lied & cheated on me multiple times. The breakdown of our relationship is because of this.
‘I was in love with him and the potential I saw in him and wanted always to help him try to be the best version of himself – as I did for 10 years – covering up. Lying to my family and friends. Arranging therapy. Believing the grovelling apologies. I of course now feel like a f****** idiot. (Especially as more things come to the surface) I never wanted to say any of this. I find the whole situation utterly humiliating.’
She added that the final straw had come at the beginning of the year, when someone approached her to tell her about another of Dack’s infidelities. Dack has remained silent.
Of course it’s natural that some fans will be annoyed at the ‘deception’. But if you’re looking to reality TV stars for authenticity, then more fool you.
Indeed, it sounds as if the person Attwood has been deceiving the most is herself, spending a decade with an apparently cheating oik who never deserved her or had any respect for her.
We’ve all been there – trying to convince ourselves that a bloke will change if we can stick it out a bit longer and try a bit harder. They never do, and it’s for this reason that I’m feeling a whole lot of sympathy for Olivia Attwood, instead of viewing her as public enemy number one.
Stranger Things’ Sadie as Juliet? It’s genius
Actress Sadie Sink attending the press night afterparty for Romeo & Juliet – the show at the Harold Pinter theatre marks her West End debut
My 12-year-old daughter Edie is obsessed with Stranger Things star Sadie Sink, who is starring in the West End adaptation of Romeo And Juliet. I took Edie to the show last weekend, and tweens and teens in the audience were desperate to catch a glimpse of Sink. I have to thank the director Robert Icke for the inspired casting; what a clever way to Trojan Horse Shakespeare into the lives of Generation Alpha.
The other invasion of Clapham
A teen mob causes chaos for locals and police on Clapham High Street earlier this week
I don’t live far from Clapham High Street, where shops – including the new Marks & Spencer – were this week forced to close due to mobs of feral teenagers storming the place.
When the store opened last year it was swamped by local influencers in M&S Picky Bits baseball caps. I don’t know what’s worse – the influencers, or the youth mobs – but I do know that Clapham’s middle-aged population would like to be able to buy their hummus in peace.
Wes Streeting’s inquiry into the demand for mental health services has concluded that young adults are ‘incentivised’ to get an ADHD or autism diagnosis. There are no ‘perks’ to these conditions – not least when the Health Secretary talks about them as if they are overindulgent accessories.
My love for roomscrolling
According to a new poll, 86 per cent of Britons get off on browsing through photos of other people’s houses on sites such as Rightmove.
The trend has been called ‘roomscrolling’, which certainly has a better ring to it than the term ‘property porn’, which I’d always used.
Anyway, as someone who loves nothing more than nosing through the latest estate agent listings, my only question about this news is: what on earth is wrong with the 14 per cent of people who aren’t roomscrolling?
Why Meryl and I share shoes
A silver suede and snake pair of Sole Bliss heels – the brand worn by Meryl Street on the red carpet recently
I was pleased to see Meryl Streep in a pair of Sole Bliss heels for The Devil Wears Prada 2 premiere. These are the only heels I will wear nowadays, as they have a special ‘bunion bed’ for maximum comfort for my wide Hobbit toes.
