Star splits from cheating wife, cousin

The Chase star Mark “The Beast” Labbett has split from his wife of five years.

The 53-year-old quiz show guru’s separation from Katie comes after The Sun on Sunday revealed how she had been secretly dating hunk Scott Bate, 28, for more than a year.

The married couple, who have a young son, are putting their $11. million Hereford house on the market.
 

Their decision to split follows pictures of artist Katie, 26, on a date night with handsome metal worker Scott last week.

Last night she said: “Mark and I had been talking about separating for some time — we have been drifting for a while.

“He works away a lot and that’s been hard. A lot of people think it’s the age difference but we don’t see that as the factor.

“It’s more that we don’t have mutual friends, and our lives are just very different.

“I met Scott by accident, on a night out, and we just clicked. It wasn’t intentional, it just happened. But Mark always knew — straight from the off I was honest.
 

“He knew I was going out and who I was seeing. He was incredibly understanding. If it was anybody else it wouldn’t matter, but because Mark’s in the limelight, people have been gossiping. It’s frustrating.

“We remain good friends and he is happy for me that I’ve met Scott — and I’d be fine if he met someone else.

“So I just want to set the record straight now as I’m sick of all the speculation. I want us all to be able to get on with our lives.”

Last month The Sun on Sunday revealed that Katie had been secretly dating Scott, enjoying a trip to Capri and romantic mini-breaks.

After being approached by The Sun on Sunday, Scott removed pics and mentions of Katie from his Facebook page.

A spokesman for Mark, who stars on the Channel 7 quiz show hosted by Andrew O’Keefe, declined to comment at the time.

Katie and Mark originally began chatting on Facebook when they were both seeing other people. But the pair struck up a friendship after she went to see one of his shows, and they both ended their relationships and got together.
 

Katie moved from Dubai to be with 6ft 7in (204cm) Mark and they went on to marry at Arundel Castle in West Sussex in 2014.

Bizarrely, the couple are second cousins — but only found out after they wed.

Oxford-educated Mark, who was the university’s shot put champ in 1985, studied maths.

Mark graduated in 1989 and became a secondary school teacher. It was while teaching he was given his nickname by a colleague. He appeared on quiz show Mastermind and went on to win £48,000 ($AU89,000) during two appearances on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

In 2009 he was approached by ITV producers to become one of the chasers in the original line-up of the quiz show in the UK.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission