Unless you've been living under a rock over the past week, you'll know thatTOWIE's Megan McKenna and Pete Wicks have hit the headlines after Pete was caught sexting his ex-girlfriend Jacqui Ryland and a handful of another girls.
Some of the texts were so explicit The Sun newspaper admitted that some messages were too rude to print. Pete also implied that Megan was 'boring' and that he 'missed being single.'
Understandly devastated by his actions, Megan is unsure if she'll ever be able to ever forgive him - especially as they're evidently still in love and were planning a future together.
Aplogising for his actions and admitting that 'he's an idiot', Pete said:
""I have never cheated on you, ever. And I don't expect for you to get back with me now, but you need to know that I love you and you need to know that I ain't going to give up. Because I know that you still love me."
Megan's best mate, Danielle Armstrong, also added fuel to the fire when she said Pete's actions were 'far worse than if he had had a one-night stand'.
Is a one-night stand worse than sexting? Two writers share their thoughts:
WRITER 1: 'Yes, a one night stand is far worse.'
This Pete Wicks and Megan McKenna ‘scandal’ is almost too real for television and I’ve found it really hard to read and watch the brave and honest revelations made by Megan – a strong, sassy woman who basically made a living from not putting up with anyone’s s**t. I mean, remember her in Ex On The Beach?
One line from Megan really struck a chord with me: "Sometimes I wake up and I feel better about it and think ‘well he hasn’t slept with anyone."
Apparently cheating falls under two categories: emotional cheating and physical cheating. Both equally damaging, both hurtful and both deceitful. Annoyingly, the lines of cheating are blurred in this day and age.
The act of harmless flirting can often be heavily misconstrued; social media allows us to have instant access to whoever we choose and easy mistakes are often made and even harder to erase. And often in relationships (yes, even healthy ones), hideous arguments make us crave attention elsewhere. Whether it be through watching pornographic material (c'mon, nearly every man is guilty of it) or simply harmless banter with a friend or member of the opposite sex. But is saying you’re going to do something better than actually doing it? I think so.
Megan made the point of saying that Pete was clearly sexting/messaging/sending pictures to girl(s) whilst sitting right next to her – something that Danielle Armstrong believed was worse than actively seeking out a girl in a club and then having a ‘drunken’ one-night stand.
I firmly believe that having a drunken one-night stand is far worse than Pete’s actions of messaging these girls. Alcohol fuelled or not, sex is sex. It’s is raw, it’s intimate, can be incredibly emotional and takes rather a lot of effort. Far more cunning and calculating in my opinion.
Talking about having sex and actually HAVING sex is a line Pete was yet to cross. I’m not saying he wouldn’t have crossed it if he didn’t get caught out. He probably would have. He’s been an arsehole. If he had questioned his moral compass and stopped it all without being caught out, maybe this would just be one massive (but pretty forgiveable) mistake.
Putting ‘drunken’ in front of one-night stand is just a lazy excuse for excusing adultery. Alcohol blurs lines and often makes people lose inhibitions. It doesn’t make you forget you have a girlfriend/boyfriend back at home. It doesn’t change the fact that you've agreed to monogamous sex with YOUR PARTNER. No one else.
However, the fact Pete was sexting a recent ex-girlfriend ‘reminiscing’ about the x-rated exploits they used to get up to and opening up about his relationship troubles with his girlfriend is something I just possibly can’t defend. Sorry mate.
WRITER 2: No, sexting is definitely worse than a one-night stand
Let’s get this straight from the start – cheating is cheating. Whether it’s a drunken one-night stand, or sexting several people, the fact is that the behaviour is deplorable.
But when it comes to the current situation between Megan McKenna and Pete Wicks I have to say I completely agree with Danielle Armstrong when she said that Pete sending explicit messages and pictures to a brood of other girls, “is worse than a one-night stand,”
Why? Because, put simply, if you are sexting someone – or in this case, multiple people – when you are in a relationship, you are actively looking from some sort of sexual gratification from someone other than your partner.
Whether or not those sexts lead to anything physical, the fact is that the person has knowingly engaged in these inappropriate conversations – either getting people to send them naked photos, saying sexually explicit things, or fantasising with them about what they could do together.
So they haven’t physically cheated, granted, but it’s a far harder emotional feat to understand why someone would want to talk to a bunch of strangers about what they want to do to them sexually – and over a long period of time. They’re not just sending one sexy message, they’re repeatedly going back to these girls for images and a filthy chat. That’s not a ‘one-off mistake’.
And the worst thing about it is that the sexy messages could have been exchanged at absolutely any time. Megan mentioned to Dani that some of the messages she found on Pete’s phone were sent right after they’d slept together, and even asked him, “Is that the girl you were messaging when you were sitting in my mum and dad’s house?”
The fact that someone could be lying in bed with you, or hanging out with your family, while secretly sending dirty texts is something I would never be able to get my head around. And when that person is an ex? There’s no guilt there, there’s no love there and there is absolutely zero respect.
If someone can do that to you, what’s stopping them from going that one step further?
**What do YOU think? Let us know over on Twitter and Facebook (@CloserOnline). **
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TOWIE's Bobby Norris: 'Give Pete Wicks and Megan McKenna four weeks and it'll be fine'