Noel Edmonds in marriage split

Tara Conlan|James Mills|Tom Kelly|Daily Mail

11 April 2012

They claimed to have simply 'drifted apart' and said nobody else was involved.

But Noel Edmonds's split with his wife Helen might not be as amicable as it seems, with details emerging yesterday of an affair between Mrs Edmonds and her cross-dressing gym instructor.

The three-month relationship flourished under the TV star's nose after Mrs Edmonds started taking private Pilates lessons from Stuart Lord at the couple's 36-room mansion.

If a former partner is to be believed, 41-yearold Mr Lord could hardly be more different from the cheeky but wholesome former presenter of Noel's House Party.

Sarah Dyson, a 52-year-old music teacher who had been with Mr Lord four years before she discovered the affair over Christmas, claims he is a bisexual who enjoys dressing up in women's clothes and having sex with strangers in public.

Miss Dyson has thrown him out of the home they shared in Teignmouth, Devon, a short drive across Dartmoor from the Edmondses' 850-acre estate in Jacobstowe.

She said yesterday that she hoped her revelations about Mr Lord would come as a shock to 41-year-old Mrs Edmonds.

Mr and Mrs Edmonds, who have three daughters - Lorna, 17, Olivia, 14, and Alice, six - announced last week that their 18-year marriage was over.

They said they had been struggling to keep the relationship going for the past two years, but insisted 'no other party' was involved.

Mrs Edmonds - who also has a 21-year-old daughter, Charlotte, from a previous relationship - said yesterday that her relationship with Mr Lord had nothing to do with the marriage break-up.

Miss Dyson said Mr Lord, who is also a children's charity worker, met Mrs Edmonds in September. She said she began to suspect an affair when he spent more time at the mansion and Mrs Edmonds started sending him text messages.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she found a message on his phone from churchgoing Mrs Edmonds which read: 'The vestal virgin leaving choir practice is ready to be corrupted by a tall dark handsome man.'

She said Mr Lord made a tearful confession after she confronted him and claims he told her intimate details of his affair.

'Stuart told me they had sex all over the place, in vehicles, in a car park on the moor. Yes, it was full-on,' she added. She also told a Sunday newspaper details of Mr Lord's bizarre sex life, claiming he enjoyed group sex, gay sex and wearing women's underwear.

'He also loved rubber, being tied up, whipped, spanked, wearing nipple clamps, basically everything,' she said. 'He even had a thing about cling film.'

Mr Lord insisted the affair was nothing serious yesterday. 'I had been trying to end my relationship with Sarah for some time but she was unable to accept the situation,' he said. 'I therefore exaggerated my friendship with Helen in order to force the issue.

I realise now I behaved extremely naively.'

Mrs Edmonds said she was 'devastated' by the revelations.

She said: 'When I first met Stuart it was apparent he was having difficulties in his relationship with Sarah.

'Stuart is a free spirit but, as to his tastes, all I can say is he never wore a dress when he was teaching me Pilates or on the squash court.'

But last night Miss Dyson told the Daily Mail: 'Stuart was not exaggerating when he told me about the relationship. I know for a fact it's been going on for three months. As far as I am aware it's still going on.'

Since Noel's House Party was axed in 1999, Edmonds, 56, has concentrated on business ventures which are said to have netted him £75million. Despite his move away from TV, he says he still works a 70-hour week.

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Noel Edmonds in marriage split

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