Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock stepped down from his role after his scandalous affair emerged during the Covid-19 lockdown – but he’s proved he’s in his new relationship for the long run
Today marks the sixth anniversary of Covid lockdown, but the images of then Health Secretary Matt Hancock getting hot and heavy with his aide have not faded.
At a time when families were being torn apart and was patients were being forced to die alone, Hancock was caught on CCTV snogging his aide Gina Coladangelo. The married father-of-three broke his own lockdown rules, ignoring social distancing policies, and was caught red handed in a steamy affair in 2021 when photos emerged of their steamy clinch inside the Department of Health.
Two marriages were destroyed as a result of the Tory MP’s indescretions – it ruined Hancock’s 15-year marriage to wife Martha Hoyer Millar, and Coladangelo’s union with Oliver Bonas founder, Oliver Tress. He was forced to step down as health secretary but in a bid to stay relevant, he appeared on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, in 2022, finishing in third place.
READ MORE: Matt Hancock’s fuming reaction to ‘disrespectful’ question about affair
The stint reportedly earned him a whopping six-figure payday, on top of his impressive MP salary of £91,346. In a move bound to have pained his ex-wife, he gushed about Gina while in the jungle, putting her name at the forefront of the scandal once again, and she even sent him a heartfelt message while he was on the show.
While he was a controversial campmate, it helped boost his profile and gained him more screentime. He then appeared on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins in 2023.
But where are the cheating love birds now? Five years on and it appears they are very much still together and living in London. They are often seen together at exclusive events, eating out at swanky restaurants and going on luxurious holidays.
Before she became Hancock’s aide, Gina was a marketing and communications director at Oliver Bonas, and had three children with her ex-husband Talia, Layla and Bruno. However the pair quickly split after the affair came to light.
Gina sold her family home that she shared with her husband for £7.5 million to Gordon Ramsey in March 2023.
The pair met at Oxford University while volunteering at a student radio station. Speaking on Steve Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast about their relationship, he said: “I’ve known Gina for more than half of my life and we first actually worked together on student radio back in the Oxford days.
“So, we spent a lot of time together, ironically, trying to get me to be able to communicate in a more emotionally intelligent way.”
He said he regretted hurting his ex, and accepted that the public nature must have made it “incredibly painful”. He said it was “tough” to end a relationship, but he and Gina “love each other very deeply” and said it’s getting easier with time.
Talking about quitting the cabinet, he added: “I resigned because I broke the social distancing guidelines. They were the guidelines that I’d been proposing. And that happened because I fell in love with somebody… we fell in love. And that’s something that was completely outside of my control.”
Gina had been brought in as a communications expert for Hancock’s Department of Health. Her £15,000 a year salary raised eyebrows, as she had no prior health credentials. It was accused she had only been hired for personal reason, but a spokesperson defended the hire and said she was “initially brought in as a volunteer”. However she resigned from her role after her affair was exposed.
But they’re certainly not short of cash. His income has significantly increased due to media appearances, public speaking gigs, and a even book deal. In 2021, he penned a controversial and congratulatory book titled ‘The Pandemic Diaries’ which was brimming with excuses and justifications for his role in the chaotic, scandal-ridden Government during the pandemic. His estimated net worth now stands at around £5 million – a significant increase from his pre-scandal days.
Despite failing woefully at marketing his own rules during the pandemic, Hancock is also now head honcho at BBS, his family’s marketing and data management firm where he first started out. His Linkein page boasts: “Matt Hancock is the Managing Director or of BBS, the UK’s leading address data experts.
“He served in the UK Cabinet under three Prime Ministers, and is probably best known for his role as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2018 to 2021, where he led the NHS and the wider UK health system through the Covid pandemic and Chaired the vaccine delivery programme.”
The pair are also said to have been in discussion about potential business ventures and media collaborations.
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