Anthea Turner has accused former Countdown presenter Anne Robinson of writing “very spiteful things” about her after her divorce from DJ Peter Powell, saying the columnist “made my life hell” without knowing the full story.
Turner, now 66, left Powell – her manager and a former BBC Radio 1 DJ – for property developer Grant Bovey in 1998. She married Bovey the following year, but they split in 2012 after his infidelity. Bovey was married with three young daughters when the affair began, and Turner was branded a homewrecker by the press.
“Anthea Turner says Anne Robinson and Lynda Lee-Potter wrote 'spiteful' things about her after affair with Grant Bovey.”
In a new interview with The Telegraph, Turner said Robinson and tabloid journalist Lynda Lee-Potter were responsible for the worst coverage. Lee-Potter, who died in 2004 aged 69, wrote for The Daily Mail; Robinson was a columnist at The Express. Turner recalled: “The end of my first marriage and meeting Grant caused an eruption. I was television’s golden girl, then I had an affair and was vilified.”
“Some very spiteful things were written,” she said. “Anne Robinson and a journalist called Lynda Lee-Potter made my life hell, without, of course, knowing the full story.” Turner added that the coverage was “vile” and that “only women” wrote such things. “I don’t think a man is capable of writing like that,” she said.
The Independent has contacted Robinson for comment.
Turner, who rose to fame on Blue Peter in the early 1990s before hosting GMTV and the National Lottery draw, said she owned up to the affair to avoid being caught. “I asked a solicitor friend to put out a statement because otherwise they were going to go poking around and something was going to get found out,” she told The Telegraph. “I look back on it all now, it was a series of unfortunate events.”
She and Bovey split in 2012, two years after he declared bankruptcy. Last year she said she “felt terrible” about breaking up his marriage. She also spoke about going through menopause while his business was failing, later discovering he was having an affair. “They were difficult times,” she told The Independent last year. “[Menopause] doesn’t come at a good time in your life. I tried to put into words what was happening to me, but then of course I later found out he was having an affair and wasn’t interested in his sweaty wife.”
Separately, Mary Davidson Smith, 105, from Edinburgh, revealed her secret to a long and happy life.
