The date when Julie Burchill really was made of money, and Richard Madeley’s unfortunately timed break-up

Julie Burchill I’ve never really been on a date – I got with my first husband as a teenager, then married two further men one after the other. But in the very early days of courting my husband Dan (who is thirteen years younger than me) I was very keen to appear the worldly 35-year-old and when I told him ‘We’ll take a suite at the Imperial in Torquay for a week this summer – I always do that’, I was determined to show him how sophisticated I could be. We rocked up to this gorgeous hotel (it really was splendid in the 1990s) and made ourselves, ahem, at home. Then I took him to the balcony and pointed down to the deserted swimming pool: ‘Let’s go!’ Dan and I both like to drink, and I’d bought a huge bottle of vodka on the way. We drank half the bottle of Fanta from the mini bar and refilled it with vodka – half and half, really strong.