We concluded our dad must have cheated, as this was always happening in TV shows and Jacqueline Wilson books
The night that she told us remains so vivid in my mind; the pyjamas I was wearing, the TV show that was playing in the background as she spoke, the feeling of the duvet on my
. This, we reasoned, was why we only stayed with him two nights in every seven, why he was so much less involved in our upbringing, why he was always angry when we took a Fruit Shoot from the fridge without asking, and why mystery callers would phone the landline for long chats after he thought we’d gone to bed.And my mother was more than willing to let us believe this, but, as it turned out, she was the one who had broken that particular marriage vow. She had been having an affair for years.
“I heard a heap of criticism on the age difference…that forged my character,” said Tiphaine. But, she says she “learned how to live with because love was there”. Of course, the Macron situation is different because of the added scandal of the age gap, but even without this, the notion of women having affairs, of leaving their family behind for romance, for sex even, is still so much more frowned upon than when men do the same.
I also do not believe my parents ever really moved on and found peace. Yes, they had subsequent relationships – including my mum moving in with the man she’d been having the affair with – but still there is deep unhappiness and so much unaddressed hurt. Like a stopped clock, paused in that moment.