'It felt like alcoholism': Comedian Mark Watson's three year affair confession prompts caller to discuss infidelity
23 August 2023, 19:28 | Updated: 23 August 2023, 19:50
Mark Watson's affair confession triggers discussion, as caller John reflects to Shelagh Fogarty about his own marital infidelity and its resemblance to compulsive behaviour.
Shelagh Fogarty spoke to John in Croydon after English comedian Mark Watson said that a three-year affair was a way of avoiding ‘the fact [he] wasn’t special’.
Mark Watson, the comedian, is in his 23rd consecutive summer at the Edinburgh festival.
John began to tell Shelagh about his "three or four" affairs whilst married to his wife.
He said: "I've been married to my wife who is a beautiful, lovely woman but, you know, I think one of my big failings was I never knew how to control myself with women.
"You know, I would always be flirting with women, chatting up with them, you know then I got married and I just couldn't stop.
Before the release of his memoir titled "Mortification," Watson, aged 43, unveiled in a recent interview that during the period when his ex-wife Emily gave birth to their second child, she also came to know about his extramarital involvement.
Caller John continued: "I just got trapped where I was moving from one affair to the next and it was like a never-ending cycle with the lies involved with my wife.
"I was completely ashamed of myself and with four young children, I couldn't look them in the face. I couldn't look myself in the mirror.
"I wasn't proud of what I was doing..."
Shelagh asked: "Did it feel like a compulsive behaviour, almost like as if you drank too much or gambled too much?"
John replied: "Yeah it felt almost like alcoholism or gambling or something that you know, is bad for you."
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