By Victoria Mckeown-
Matt Hancock’s and Gina Coladengelo’s exposed affair inspired the announcement of Michael Gove and his wife, Sarah Vine’s divorce.
Ever since pictures of Matt Hancock snogging his aide emerged, Sarah Vine admitted she had been thinking about the nature of political marriages and how rarely, if ever, they manage to thrive under the pressures of public life. She had done a lot of thinking and wasn’t shy to bring the heat to her husband openly, after all her political marriage wouldn’t be the first to succumb to the pressures of political life, as she herself had poignantly noted.
There could have been no better time than in the same period to make her own failed marriage known, especially as she has the added edge of letting the world know that there was no infidelity involved, nor for that matter, any breach of coronavirus rules. It can hardly be a matter of chance that within a week of Hancock splitting from his wife after being caught breaking coronavirus rules and cheating, Michael Gove and Sarah Vine announced their own termination of marriage.
Sarah Vine had prepared the public and the media for the announcement through her article in the Daily Mail which she seemed to suggest that she could see through the facade of her husband, Michael Gove, who is not the master his position made him out to be.
The article entitled ”the problem with the wife who’s been with you for ever is that she knows you’re not the Master of the Universe you purport to be” published for The Daily Mail Online, In hindsight, was also a dig at Mr. Gove, whom- if the content of her article is to be applicable to him- has become too pre-occupied with the demands of politics to pay due attention to home life.
She pointed out an interview in which she was struck by something Hancock told an interviewer during lockdown.
”Asked about how the family had been coping, he said ‘of course, Martha’s borne the brunt of it’, adding: ‘Thank God Martha is totally wonderful in looking after the children and looking after me, and it’s really tough
Mr Hancock was forced to quit after pictures emerged of him kissing his aide Gina Coladangelo in his Whitehall office. The Hypocrisy of a health secretary breaking coronavirus rules did not feature in Ms Vine’s article, rather her valid point was the fact Hancock was reliant on his wife to look after their children, while he plays the big I am operating politics here there and everywhere. Hancock admitted the role for his wife was ”tough”, Vine’s point being that it leaves men in power exposed to the human vulnerabilities of cheating.
In a column on the scandal, Ms Vine wrote: “The problem with the wife who has known you since way before you were king of the world is that she sees through your facade.
“She knows your fears and your insecurities. She knows that, deep down inside, you are not the Master of the Universe you purport to be. And some people don’t like to be reminded of that.”
She added: “It is very hard to do these high-level, high-pressure, high-stakes jobs unless you have someone prepared to take up the reins in every other department of your life.
“But the problem is that inevitably sets you on different tracks. You become so entrenched in your respective roles that you begin to drift apart.”
Matt Hancock and Gina Coladangelo was catalyst to Sarah Vine announcing her divorce to Michael Gove Image:news.sky.com
One point I found interesting was Ms Vine’s reference to the Duchess Of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, whom she says keeps her husband in check. Her reference to her confirmed some kind of connection with the Cambridges, which explains many of her attacking articles of Prince William and Meghan Markle, featured in The Daily Express and The Daily Mirror.
Her influence in the media releases about the royal fall out had come up a number of times with The Eye Of Media’s special analytical thinktank, as many minds sought to determine why she was so heavily involved in coverage about the fall out between the Sussexes and The Cambridges, with no concern how it could affect her husband’s image. With more clarity to her own marriage issue, the topic has already been lined up for re-evaluation.
Interestingly, I personally mailed Sarah Vine twice over her involvement in the royal family feud, my most recent mail to her being last week- about which I received no response. This publication had been examining her decision to regularly feature critical views against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex not only in her Daily Mail Column, but also in the Daily Express and occasionally, the Daily Mirror. I was totally unaware of her cracking relationship with her husband, Michael Gove.
One of the questions directly put two her on three separate occasions was how her regular articles about the royal family featured on her husband, being a politician. After each occasion, a decision to scrutinise her role in an article was abandoned after our thintank-split on the matter- led to our editor changing his mind, going back and forth on earlier agreements to pursue one.
The reason was not to risk a potential strain on their marriage , just in case Michael Gove had no say on her decision to be so vocal in her views about the royal family. On the face of it, most believed her regular criticism of the couple , however justified, reflected negatively on Mr. Gove, who as a senior minister in government would not be expected to get involved in sensitive issues at that level. The general assumption was that he would be aware of her views v and expected to talk her out of expressing them openly, unless he agreed with them and believed they should be publicly shared.
However, it was also known that Mr. Gove could have had completely different views from his wife, and not approve of her public sharing of those views. It is now established that whatever his views on the matter, it is unlikely that he could have stopped her from expressing them if their marriage was already on the rocks, and she was discontent with his commitment to the family in terms of time spent at home.
She raises important points that should be taken seriously in terms of politicians balancing their time with their job with that of family life.
Mr Gove himself was once contacted by this publication when he publicly challenged Mp Desmond Swayne for his claim that the number of coronavirus deaths had been manipulated. The Foreign Secretary had on that occasion acted lie the master of the universe when he accused Mr Swayne of spreading disinformation, adding ”we will see about that”, in what was taking to suggest disciplinary action.
We followed up Mr. Gove a number of times about the action to be taken, but none was ever forthcoming. It could have been one of the situations, Sarah Vine was referring to.
One thing we learnt from Ms Vine’s article in the Daily Mail was that for some reason she was unable to exercise the sort of control on her husband she would have liked to do. Her praise for David Cameron’s wife Samantha, in being able ”to bring him back down to earth when he seemed in danger of drifting away in a cloud of self-importance”, and not always gently” revealed the standards she expects male politicians to abide by. Their children were not just background noise”, she insightfully said- su8gesting that her children may have been reduced to background noise.
If that was the case, it seems to mean she felt her husband deserved the public embarrassment of being exposed for failing to respond to her complaints, if we assume she tried to bring him down to earth, but he stayed high up there lie the master of the universe she new he was not.