Was Gordon Ramsey affair story a PR stunt by alleged mistress?

Publish date: 2024-03-14

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has gotten a lot of bad press in the last few weeks over a reported affair he had with “professional mistress” Sarah Symonds. Fox News’ Pop Tarts has evidence that Symonds’ claims were all just an attempt to increase hits on the website AshleyMadison.com, for which she was a spokesperson. The website is for people who want to have extramarital affairs. Symonds was employed because she wrote an instructional book on how to be a mistress. Classy. The president and CEO of AshleyMadison claims Symonds had reason to fake an affair, and a high profile chef was suggested during website meetings.

It has been quite a rough week for top British chef Gordon Ramsay after author Sarah Symonds went public with claims she has been having a ten-year affair with the married “Hell’s Kitchen” star. Ramsay however came forth on Thursday and dismissed the allegations as “a load of BS” while appearing on the BBC’s “Good Food Show.” But Miss Symonds was employed in February this year to be the U.K spokesperson for the controversial internet dating service AshleyMadison.com which caters to those looking to have a secret extramarital affair.

“Symonds was the face of the company in the U.K and we wanted to generate some buzz and one of the ideas we threw around was if she was too have a high-profile affair,” Noel Biderman, President & CEO of AshleyMadison.com tells Tarts. “At the time she specifically asked if an affair with a top British chef would accomplish what we needed to do.”

So could it all be a PR stunt or did Symonds really have something to hide? The relationship between the spokeswoman and the company fizzed out after just a few months as Symonds reportedly wanted to head to Hollywood and pursue her lifelong ambitions while the company needed someone who would stay in the U.K.

“There were no ill feelings when she left,” Biderman says, adding that he has since reached out to Symonds in the wake of the Ramsay infidelity claims but has not had a response.

[From Pop Tarts]

The main problem with this angle is that Symonds isn’t working for AshleyMadison anymore, so why would she come forward about the affair now? While the president’s quote is pretty damning, it’s important to note that Pop Tarts has a big conflict of interest here – which they don’t disclose. It’s part of Fox News’ website, and Ramsay’s reality show “Hell’s Kitchen” is a Fox show. It would make sense that they want to keep their talent looking good. The article could still very well be true, and Noel Biderman said what he said. But it’s important to take the whole thing with a grain of salt since Fox didn’t disclose the conflict of interest.

No matter what, Sarah Symonds sounds like a real loser. She’s become famous for her affairs, and apparently that’s the only thing she’s good at. The woman actually wrote a book that’s essentially about how to screw another woman over. She doesn’t sound like an ethical person, so it wouldn’t be that surprising if this whole debacle was just a way for her to become more famous.

Here’s Sarah Symonds’ instructional cheating book. Header of Gordon Ramsay leaving his London home this morning. Image thanks to Fame.

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