Link/Page Citation
THE attractive 21-year-old holding Mike Hollingsworth's handhas an air of innocence. She says they are in love and he looks like thecat that has got the cream. Today, the girl putting the grin on54-year-old Mike's face is student Kimberley Stewart-Mole.
But 33 years ago there was another naive, beautiful girl who wasbeing bowled over by his charms.
Tricia Jefferson-Winn became the first Mrs Hollingsworth when, likeKimberley, she was just 21. They parted in a blaze of publicity 17 yearslater when showbusiness agent Mike fell for TV presenter Anne Diamond.
In all the years since, Tricia has never spoken of theirrelationship or uttered the name of the woman who helped shatter whatshe believed to be a perfect marriage.
Now for the first time she reveals how she was seduced and betrayedby Hollingsworth - and how she threw him out when he couldn'tchoose between his wife and his mistress.
Remarkably, she says she feels no bitterness towards Anne, whoslept with Mike within days of their first meeting. Or for her ex, whocruelly said their marriage was boring.
Instead, Tricia says she felt sorry for them: "I was very sadfor both of them when they got divorced. Of course, I knew how Annefelt," she says.
Tricia was speaking after Mike and Kimberley, declared their love.They met in an amateur production of Dr Faustus. He was cast as The OldMan and she was playing Lechery.
Kimberley claims she has been won over by Mike's charm,humour, and stimulating chat. It all sounds very familiar to Tricia - itis the same method the serial seducer used to woo her in the late 60s.Headmaster's daughter Tricia first met Mike when he worked forAnglia TV in Norwich in 1967. She was a graphic artist with the NorwichUnion, living at home with her parents.
Snappily dressed, super-confident reporter-presenter Mike seemedmuch more mature than other boys of his age.
"I bumped into Mike in the Bell Hotel which was the meetingplace for the youth of Norwich," says Tricia. "I was with myparents, he was part of the wider group.
"He came up to me and invited me to a TV party. I gave himthis wonderful put-down line. I said 'I'm sorry I can'tcome. I'm going gliding'.
"But he was a nice guy and the party sounded fun, so Icancelled the gliding and went with him to this fabulous house andsuddenly I was part of this glamorous, exciting world.
"I had led a comfortable, sheltered life. A staid upbringing.We lived in a house in the school grounds where my father was head.
"Mike was different. Very focused. Extremely good at what hedid. Mike knew what he wanted. Tom Cruise he wasn't, but he had amagnetism."
Mike, she says, made all the running, wooing her with ahighly-organised campaign of flowers, perfume and soft words. "Thefirst time we went out he took me for a very romantic candle-lit dinner.
"In the middle of the table were some white roses and Imentioned how gorgeous they were.
"I went to the cloakroom as he paid the bill and when I got tothe car I opened the door of Mike's silver Mini and found he hadplaced one of the roses on the seat.
"Mike knew how to treat a woman. He was very chivalrous. Hewould always pay a lot of attention when you were talking and wouldalways remember what you'd said."
A few months after they met, Tricia went with her family on holidayto Italy. "When I got to my room I found a huge box of chocolatesand a telegram from Mike saying how much he was missing me. As soon as Igot back, he asked me to marry him.
"We bought a diamond ring in Cambridge and went to GranchesterTea Gardens where he slipped it on my finger. It was my 21st birthdayand we made the announcement that evening."
They married nearly a year later at a church in Norwich, withTricia carrying a bouquet of white roses. Mike had sent a huge bunch toher house that morning.
By this time he was working for Radio Leicester. He then took asimilar job in Durham. The couple moved up to the city and bought theirfirst home, a pounds 3,000 semi.
Tricia had given up her job. Mike preferred to be the solebreadwinner and his shy new wife helped him out at the radio station asan unpaid phone help and copy-taker.
After three happy years in the North, they moved to London whenMike landed a job at BBC Broadcasting House.
They set up home in upmarket Blackheath and their only child,Becky, was born in 1974. It was a traumatic time.
For the last two months of her pregnancy Tricia lay drugged in ahospital bed suffering from Toxaemia - a form of blood poisoning - indanger of losing the baby. "I was zonked out on Valium," shesays. "Mike would come in every day after work and bring perfume orroses. The baby was induced and taken to special care. Because she wasso weak Tricia didn't see Becky for five days: "Mike saw herevery day and brought me Polaroids of her to see."
BACK at home, at first Mike proved a dutiful husband, rising earlyto give Becky a bottle feed and change her nappy before work as Triciastruggled to regain her health.
Then when Becky was four months Tricia suffered a pulmonaryembolism, a blood clot through the heart.
Had Mike not been with her, she could have died. "I was lyingon the bed ready to do the nightly feed when I felt a terrible pain.
"I pleaded with Mike not to call an ambulance because I hatedthe thought of going to hospital again, but he dialled 999 and thecardiac unit was there very quickly. He was very decisive."
When, years later, Anne and Mike lost their baby son Sebastian tocot death, Tricia had nothing but sympathy.
She says: "I was kept abreast of what was happening withreporters constantly knocking on the door.
"I'm a mother myself so I felt desperately sorry for Anneand Mike, whatever had gone before. Losing a child is the most awfulthing that can happen to anyone. It's appalling. My heart went outto them. I spoke to Mike on the phone at the time and expressed mysympathy to both of them."
For the sake of Tricia's health, the family moved out ofLondon. Mike rose further up the media greasy pole firstly with RadioOxford and then at Southern TV where he became an editor.
Tricia paints an idyllic picture: "We had a big detached houseby the river Hamble. Plenty of money. I was a good cook and Mike liked ameal ready for him.
"We would host big dinner parties every New Year's Day for his TV friends. We were very happy." Then, in 1979, Mike movedagain, to Central TV in Birmingham.
"This time he left his family behind. Soon Tricia's cosyworld came tumbling down.
OUR daughter had just started school and it wasn't fair tomove her straight away," says Tricia. "But we did put thehouse on the market and the plan was that we would move up."
When he arrived as head of news, Mike met a flirtatious 26-year-oldjunior reporter, Anne Diamond. Within a week they were in bed together.Cruelly, Mike has since said his marriage to Tricia had been a naiveone, "and had become quite pedestrian".
Far from being boring, Anne, he said, was totally different andthey did sexual things he had never experienced before.
He started living with Anne four days a week and Tricia and Beckythree. Crazily, he believed he could keep his mistress and his wifehappy and they could even get to like each other.
Tricia says she hadn't a clue that he found her or their lovelife boring and choosing a characteristically old-fashioned phrase sayshe was "ungallant' making comparisons with another woman. Shewas shocked when she learned of his affair and wounded so deeply thateven today she says she can't remember how she first heard it."I was absolutely devastated.
"We had a lovely life. He showed no signs at all of beingunhappy until he moved to Birmingham.
"As far as I was concerned, our marriage was happy andfulfilling on every level, emotionally, physically, spiritually. He wasthe father of my daughter. A large part of my life for many years."
Two decades on, Tricia still winces at the memory of her seeminglyperfect husband's betrayal.
Understandably enough, at the time she wouldn't haveentertained any thoughts of sharing him with Anne Diamond.
Instead, eaten up with guilt, Mike ended the affair and they triedto patch things up, but he couldn't get the go-ahead Miss Diamondout of his head.
The affair resumed after he and rising star Anne both landed TVjobs in London. Tricia says: "I never moved to Birmingham. But wedid move to London as a family and tried to start afresh. Within a shortspace of time Anne Diamond moved there."
MIKE has always said that he walked out on Tricia. But, in fact,this was the point where the loyal, subservient wife finally tookcontrol of a situation threatening to destroy her.
Tricia reveals: "He couldn't make up his mind. Hedidn't want to give Anne up. He didn't want to leave me. Idecided to make up his mind for him. I told him to leave. I think he wasshocked by that."
Emboldened by the memory, Tricia adds: "Chew on that Mike,because that's how it happened. He'd been making it worse foreverybody. Becky, me and him.
"I was terrified. Hell's teeth, I was getting near myforties. I hadn't worked since I got married. It was a huge stepinto the unknown. I wanted my marriage to work, but the day came when Ihad to move on."
Tricia, who divorced Mike in 1986, graciously refuses to condemnAnne for the part she played in the break-up. Mike married Anne in 1989.
They divorced last year after he was caught in a stormy affair withDJ Harriet Scott, 26.
"I am genuinely sad for both Anne and Mike, " saysTricia. "I don't harbour any feelings of bitterness. Whatwould be the point? It is sad for everyone when a marriage breaks down,specially when there are children."
Tricia, now 53, has found happiness with Patrick, 46, her partnerof 12 years who used to work in the film business.
They share a rambling cottage in rural Devon where Patrick does thecooking. "I've given up," Tricia laughs.
She is still a beautiful woman, but the striking, model-girl lookswhich so captivated the young Hollingsworth have softened and her blondestreaked hair is worn in a low, protective fringe.
She has an air of vulnerability when she talks of Mike and is stillreduced to tears at memories of the hurt he caused. But after severalyears when they were at loggerheads, she and Mike now have what shedescribes as an amicable relationship.
Daughter Becky runs Venture Artistes with Mike. Tricia and Mike metrecently at her wedding.
And there is no outward sign of bitterness, or disapproval over hislatest fling. "Good luck to him and Kimberley," she says.
"We all still feel 21. I can understand why Mike makes jokesabout not wanting to hang around with other 50-somethings talking aboutbrittle bone disease.
"Everyone deserves happiness. I can't speak forwhat's going on in Mike's head. But after all that'shappened, I still wish him well."
COPYRIGHT 2000 MGN LTD
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2000 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
