If match.com is missing an advertising strap line, how about saying “Where lonely cabinet members can meet lonely dominatrices?”. According to John Whittingdale, the Culture Secretary, this is precisely what happened to him – a relationship that the press knew about, but decided not to publish on the grounds that he’s single, is richly entitled to date whoever he likes and updating the public on his progress on match.com was not in the public interest. Bizarrely, the press regulation advocates Hacked Off is accusing the press of being too prudish and thinks it’s a scandal that Whitto was not humiliated and mocked. A cover-up, it says. We haven’t quite had Hugh Grant demanding that the press expose single men’s liaisons with call girls, but that can’t be far away.
Whittingdale has released the following statement to BBC Newsnight who had fewer qualms about pursuing the story.
‘Between August 2013 and February 2014, I had a relationship with someone who I first met through Match.com. She was a similar age and lived close to me.
At no time did she give me any indication of her real occupation and I only discovered this when I was made aware that someone was trying to sell a story about me to tabloid newspapers.
As soon as I discovered, I ended the relationship. This is an old story which was a bit embarrassing at the time.
The events occurred long before I took up my present position and it has never had any influence on the decisions I have made as Culture Secretary.’
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