Dad

If a married person asks why I’m on dating apps, a time-sucking, life- draining experience I’d rather not go through, I simply reply: “Out of necessity.” I always cut the conversation short; it’s the only way to deal with a married person getting visibly comfy, glass of wine in hand, bedding in to listen to salacious, sexual dating stories at my expense. Listen dear, go and seek out your sexual thrills elsewhere (it’s called Pornhub). Married people cannot possibly understand how difficult it is to meet partners in midlife and beyond. As for their well-meaning suggestions of potential “hot spots” to meet like-minded people, I’m yet to encounter a couple who met at the bar during a theatre interval break. At a party recently, someone (married) suggested the school gate as a dating opportunity . So I told them the story of the affair that rocked our middle-class zone-two London enclave a few years back. Now stuff of legend, it caused such a scandal that it could’ve been lifted … [Read more...] about Dating hot single dads from school is a no-no

A dad who ‘refused to leave’ hospital after being told to see a GP was later diagnosed with a terminal leukaemia. Gareth Dixon had pleaded with health staff for vital blood tests after waiting 20 hours to be seen. The 40-year-old, from Warrington, had gone to A&E with hip and rib cage pain. He had called 111 before doing so, after his family became concerned about his severe chest pain. Gareth said he had struggled to get a face to face appointment at his local GP practice in the weeks prior. He had been struggling with fatigue, thirst and various other aches and pains. When he was seen by a doctor at Warrington Hospital, Gareth claims he was told to simply chase up an appointment with his GP. ‘I just refused to go anywhere until they had given me a blood test,’ he said. ‘They basically told me there was nothing wrong with me. I wasn’t going to sit there for hours to be told nothing was wrong.’ Gareth did get his bloods taken but it wasn’t until the next … [Read more...] about Dad who ‘refused to leave’ A&E for 20 hours diagnosed with terminal leukaemia

Emmerdale has launched the career of a number of young actors throughout the years - including original Lucas Taylor star Dexter Ansell. Dexter, who has recently been seen in critically acclaimed Sky series The Midwich Cuckoos opposite Keeley Hawes, landed his big break on the ITV soap in 2019. He played Lucas Taylor, the son of Dawn Taylor – but did you know he also had another secret role in Emmerdale before this? READ NEXT: Emmerdale backstage secrets - Plastic food, real graves, tributes and spelling errors That's not all, as the young star has had quite the interesting life too, including following in his famous X Factor dad's footsteps. Here, Daily Star takes a closer look inside the life of original Lucas Taylor star Dexter Ansell. Secret soap role Although Dexter Ansell is most famous for playing Lucas Taylor in Emmerdale, the young actor had a secret role on the soap too. Between January and May 2016, he played Jimmy King's son Carl Holliday, before … [Read more...] about Original Emmerdale Lucas Taylor star’s life – secret soap role to famous X Factor dad

Emma Raducanu has laid bare how much her father would criticise her, fuelling a desire “to prove him wrong so badly”. In an interview with ES Magazine, Raducanu proclaimed her parents’ “opposite” approaches to motivating her helped her achieve “good results”. She also revealed she was so shy as a child, she would “cry on the court during a match”. Speaking ahead of her defence of her US Open crown next month, Raducanu said: “My mum was always telling me, ‘You can do anything you set your mind to’. My dad’s method was very different, basically the opposite. He told me that I couldn’t do this and that, and then I wanted to prove him wrong so badly. That’s what made me so ambitious. My mum was always backing me to prove him wrong. That’s how I achieved good results.” The 19-year-old, whose mother Renee is Chinese and father Ian is Romanian, added: “My parents always told me how it is, and I always had this sense of wanting to prove them wrong. Even in primary school, we had … [Read more...] about Emma Raducanu: ‘My dad would tell me what I couldn’t do – I wanted to prove him wrong’

Some actors and actresses spend years trying to make it, but for a lucky few, fame comes before they're even out of school. Sadly though, not all get to achieve their true potential with lives cut tragically short by murder, suicide and devastating illness. They range from a child star of Mary Poppins, to characters in more recent hits like the Harry Potter series of films. From nightclub slayings to misdiagnosed conditions that ended in death, Star Online looks back at some of the most heartbreaking child stars who have gone too soon... Rob Knox - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Cause of death: Murder British actor Rob - who played Marcus Belby - had only just finished shooting the movie when he was brutally stabbed to death in a frenzied attack outside a bar in Sidcup, Kent, in May 2008. Killer Karl Bishop butchered the rising star in a merciless 90-second attack after Rob stepped in to defend his younger brother Jamie, then 17. "It happened in front of me, I … [Read more...] about Suicides, seizures and murdered by their own dad – most harrowing child star deaths

By the time you read this, I’ll be a few days into a two-week regime otherwise known as my detox “holiday”. I’ll be sporting a unitard for the very first time since the age of three (a quick Google will provide all the visual info you require). Between sipping poo-hued juices, you will find me in the downward dog position wearing said unitard and imagining myself as the redheaded version of Gwyneth Paltrow, except with boobs, bum, curves and bigger hair. I’m excited to wear the unitard, not so thrilled about the yoga, given I’m as stiff as a gecko that’s been struck dead by lightning. All the gear and no idea. Let’s hope the doctors can stretcher me back to my room. I’m not a serial retreat-goer: the fitness retreat I attended in May was only four days long, so hardly enough time to get my head straight (which, apart from the wine and hormone-induced jelly belly, was half the reason I went). Before that, the last time I went away alone to eat lettuce and exercise vigorously on zero … [Read more...] about The right way to do a solo trip if you’re a single midlifer like me

I’m house-sitting for friends this summer. I’m still attempting to buy the same house I’ve been trying to purchase since last October, conveniently close to my kids’ school. Until then, we’re at my friends’ house – they moved to Sydney at the beginning of lockdown. They’ve just sold it and, given they haven’t been home for two years, they recently came to visit for a couple of weeks and say a last goodbye. We’ve set up a commune of seven – them, their kids, my kids and me – and even though they’ve only been here for three days, the house has seen dozens of thrilled friends pass through. Last night, a man named Mike took to the piano while his wife sang. The kids toasted marshmallows on the firepit in the garden, before deciding it was time to get the paddling pool out. The house has been a constant bustle of love and laughter. I’ve been in their company many times over the years and have always looked to them as the perfect example of two people who were lucky enough to have found … [Read more...] about For the first time in decades, I’m free to do whatever I damn well like

I’ve joined TikTok and it makes me laugh out loud every single day. Put it this way, Twitter is a viper’s nest of bitchy remarks, Facebook is where my mother and my aunty Doreen “hang” and Instagram a dull stream of perfection. TikTok, however, is rumbunctious, rebellious and even, dare I say, a silly, subversive, neverending stream of entertainment . Forget irritating dances (that’s so Lockdown 2020, darlings) the people I follow are like nothing I’ve seen on any other social media channel. From undiscovered kitchen comedians whose day-to-day lives are way funnier than any sitcom I’ve come across to psychotherapist and author Esther Perel who specialises in relationships, TikTok is better than Netflix. I’ve just ordered Perel’s best-selling novel, Mating in Captivity, as the excerpts she quotes throughout her pieces to camera have really resonated. In one such video she says (in the context of dating and relationships), “stop constantly looking at people as a product. Where … [Read more...] about Since becoming single in my late 40s, I’ve somehow attracted the wrong kinds of men

Dear Richard I am 16. I know it’s a good problem to have in a way, but my divorced parents are both offering to take me on holiday and it’s doing my head in. In the past they have divided the six weeks of summer into two lots of three – both parents would arrange some time away during ‘their’ half, and it more or less worked out. But this summer I want to go away with a friend’s family, and have tickets for a festival at the end of August, and it’s really hard to arrange. It’s also making my parents scrappy and argumentative – I thought they’d got better. Is there some solution? — Archie, via email Dear Archie Yup! Do your own thing! You’re old enough. (When I was your age I was a cub reporter on the local paper and very much went my own way, so I know how grown-up you can feel at 16.) The fact your parents are divorced is absolutely nothing to do with you. That’s down to them. So it follows that you aren’t responsible in the slightest for any tugs of war over who gets to … [Read more...] about Dear Richard Madeley: ‘My petty divorced parents are threatening to ruin my summer’

Cast of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (Image: Gillian Lynne Theatre/ Todaytix) SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info Actor/musicians scamper around the stage playing a variety of instruments, theatrical illusions and circus stunts enhance the action, and there is a palpable sense of dark reality sliding beneath the surface fantasy. Related articles The Gunpowder Plot review: Explosive experience with Harry Potter star Brief Encounter review: A light-hearted love letter to Blitz Britain During the Second World War, four children are evacuated to an eccentric professor's chilly Scottish estate where they find a portal to another world, Narnia, which is engaged in a conflict of its own. Having deposed the noble … [Read more...] about The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe review: a ‘dark sense of reality’ under fantasy