And now, his wife, 49, who until now had kept a dignified silence on the matter, has spoken out about the disintegration of her marriage.
‘I felt very secure with Paul. I trusted him completely. I loved him and he loved me’ says Alexandra. ‘We were happy and life was good,’ she added.
‘In the space of four weeks my life changed irrevocably. One minute I was happily married and the next I wasn’t'
‘Friends would say to me, usually after they’d finished one of Paul’s fabulous puddings: “How wonderful, you lucky girl.”
‘And, yes, I did feel incredibly lucky. Paul was the loveliest of husbands and a brilliant father.’
But sadly, this was not to last.
The pair had great on screen chemistry, and spoke highly of one another, with Miss Valladolid describing her co-star as a ‘handsome devil’ and he stating he was ‘dazzled’ by her.
Four weeks later Paul returned to England, and his marriage to Alexandra was over.
Alexandra is now divorcing Paul on the grounds of adultery, which he has not contested, but the pair have agreed to not discuss the exact events leading to the breakdown of the marriage, in order to protect their son.
But amazingly, Alexandra says she doesn’t ‘want or need revenge’
‘In the space of four weeks my life changed irrevocably. One minute I was happily married and the next I wasn’t. It was a complete shock. I still haven’t completely absorbed it yet’ she said.
‘Sometimes I wake up in the morning and can’t believe it’s happened. I feel utterly bewildered and incredibly sad. Paul went to America and when he came back everything was different, everything had changed.
‘He is a very decisive person. What you see on the Bake Off is Paul. He will say it as it is. If he likes something, he will say it; if he doesn’t like it, he will say it. That’s him.’