Chris Tarrant decides it's time for a peace offering

11 April 2012
The Weekender

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If you want to say a very big 'sorry' to the woman in your life, you can't go far wrong with a visit to Tiffany's.

And not many women would sniff at the £1,225 watch that Chris Tarrant proudly clutched as he emerged from the exclusive jewellers in London's Bond Street last week.

The watch was a present for his wife Ingrid's 52nd birthday, but that's not the end of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host's generosity.

For Tarrant is about to hand her a £3.5million mansion in Surrey as they divide up his £34million fortune in a divorce settlement.

But despite the marriage collapse, the 60-year-old presenter is said to be very keen to get back on speaking terms with his wife - which should ensure the divorce proceedings run smoothly and allow him access to their children.

The elegant and expensive gift - a Tiffany Mark Coupe watch with four dials and a stainless steel strap - was the first step in a charm offensive designed to persuade Ingrid to start speaking to him again.

The couple have not spoken properly since they split seven weeks ago. Amazingly, he is still staying with friends while Ingrid is living in two houses - half her possessions are at their £1.75million riverside home in Esher, half at the Surrey mansion, Hatchford Hall, near Cobham.

The TV host, who shot to fame on the anarchic Saturday morning children's TV show Tiswas, has been unable to discuss his living arrangements with his wife.

Ingrid is furious with her husband for his lengthy affair with teacher Fiona McKechnie, and the couple had a series of heated rows before Tarrant moved out of the marital home in Esher, Surrey,.

Mrs Tarrant allegedly discovered her husband's infidelity after she hired a private detective.

She discovered text messages from her husband's mobile phone to 50-year-old Miss McKechnie, a deputy primary school headmistress who he met through brain injury charity Headway.

But Tarrant says some of the text messages were entirely innocent and he is being blamed for things he has not done.

Most of Tarrant's fortune is tied up in eight luxury properties in London, Surrey, Berkshire, Stratford-upon-Avon and the French Riviera. But as part of the divorce settlement, he has now offered her Hatchford Hall - a redbrick mansion with landscaped gardens and a circular drive. He wants to live at the eight-bedroom riverside home in Esher, but is unable to move in until his wife has moved out.

The Tarrant property portfolio also includes the £2million Osgood's Gully, in Bucklebury, Berkshire, which he bought for his trysts with Ms McKechnie.

Tarrant met his wife in 1981 when they were both reporters for TV-am. She had separated from her husband, a cameraman.

They married in 1991 and were believed to have one of the strongest marriages in showbusiness. But Tarrant's decision to give up his morning breakfast show for London's Capital Radio may have put the relationship under stress as it led to him spending more time at home.

The couple's marital difficulties hit the headlines this summer when he was spotted canoodling with a blonde - not Ms McKechnie -at Esher's R Bar. But Ingrid said that their marriage was already effectively over by then, following evidence gathered by the private investigators.

At the time she released a statement saying: "I want to make it clear our divorce, and the settlement between Chris and I, will be conducted in a fair and civil manner."

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