She’s found herself at the centre of one of showbiz’s most unlikely love triangles.
And it appears that The Beast Mark Labbett’s old flame Katie has lured him back in with a glamorous new look, which she unveiled in a stunning snap shared on his social media.
The quizzer, 59, has been slammed by pals of his ex Hayley Palmer after brutally dumping her earlier this year, and has since reunited with his estranged wife Katie for an outing with their son, Lawrence.
In a snap shared on Mark’s social media, Katie showed off a slimmed-down new look, dressed in a form-fitting burgundy polo neck jumper.
Showing a newfound appreciation for designer accessories, she completed her look with a pair of chic Chanel heels, glamorous makeup and a bouncy blow dry.
She cosied up to ex Mark in the snap, captioned ‘Co-parenting in London’ as they enjoyed a day out at the Natural History Museum.
In 2020, Mark called off his seven-year marriage to his second cousin Katie, 27 years his junior and the mother of his seven-year-old son Lawrence.
The Beast Mark Labbett’s old flame Katie has lured him back with a glamorous new look, which she unveiled in a stunning snap shared on his social media
The quizzer has been slammed by pals of his ex Hayley Palmer after brutally dumping her earlier this year, before reconnecting with his former spouse
In 2020, Mark called off his seven-year marriage to his second cousin Katie, the mother of his seven-year-old son Lawrence, but they recently reunited for a family day out (pictured in 2017)
Following the split Mark went onto date Hayley, 43, but brutally dumped her during a three-minute phone call in May, days after their one-year anniversary, telling her: ‘I don’t think we should see each other any more. You were right, I don’t want to get a divorce [from Katie].’
It’s thought that friends of Hayley are now furious to see Mark growing close to Katie once again, with one telling The Mail: ‘Hayley saw the posts and it left her devastated. It was six months since they’d broken up and the posts went everywhere. It led to a lot of people reaching out and it really affected her mental health.
‘She sent Mark a WhatsApp message, which he read but did not reply to. In it she said, ‘Please be mindful of what you are posting on Instagram, as it has an impact on mental health trying to move forward, thank you.’ ‘
But she is still waiting for a reply from the man she had once dubbed ‘my gentle giant’.
Mark this week made a brutal swipe at Hayley in a newspaper interview by implying their year-long relationship was not ‘serious’.
Mark was asked about his marriage to Katie and why he had yet to divorce her. He replied: ‘It will happen if either Katie or I get with someone serious — then it might obviously be a different matter.’
The cutting remark was seized upon by furious friends of Hayley.
‘Mark’s comments were totally savage,’ one told me. ‘If their relationship wasn’t serious, as he implied, then why would he lead her to believe that it was?’
‘They’d gone on Loose Women the week before he dumped her [to talk about their relationship]. If it wasn’t that serious as he implied, why would he do that? Hayley truly believed they had a future together and they often spoke about moving in together. He led her up the garden path.
‘He has not thought about her feelings despite the fact that she reached out to him. Hayley has been doing everything she can to heal from the break-up.
‘It was very disrespectful what he did and he clearly has no compassion for Hayley given all the hurt he’s caused her.’
Mark then married Katie, a nurse, in 2014, after they met on Facebook. Mark says they knew, vaguely, that they shared ‘a family connection’. But in an extraordinary twist of fate, three years into their marriage, the pair discovered they were second cousins. Katie’s father and his father had been first cousins.
‘It wasn’t something we were aware of at the time – it was one of those things that happened,’ the Chaser said. Yet the pair decided to put it behind them – until Mark discovered that Katie had embarked on a secret relationship with design engineer Scott Bate.
‘When Katie first came clean to me about her boyfriend, I’d had an inkling,’ the quizzer said at the time. ‘But right from the start, my attitude was quite pragmatic – this was spilled milk, what could we do about the situation to make it OK?’
So instead of breaking up with his cheating wife, he agreed to try an open marriage. But Mark later revealed that life in lockdown led to pressures and created what he termed a ‘perfect storm’.
It’s thought that friends of Hayley (pictured with The Chase star last year) are now furious to see Mark growing close to Katie once again
He then decided to leave his wife in 2020 and let her move on with her new young lover.
It was following the split that Mark lost ten stone – through regular exercise, he says – and revealed his svelte new look on the red carpet of the National Television Awards in September 2022.
It was there that Mark met the statuesque Hayley, who was working as an entertainment journalist. The pair spent time together as friends, before the relationship blossomed into something more romantic and they made it official in May 2023.
Mark is a smooth-talker, known in The Chase for his pithy quips. He charmed Hayley, and her friends claim he assured her he was in the process of getting divorced from Katie. She believed him and they made their long-distance relationship work – he is based in Yorkshire and Hayley lives in London – meeting for romantic dates and exercising at hotel gyms together.
The new couple also made that appearance on ITV’s Loose Women together, where Mark gushed about their relationship. Many friends of the pair were convinced that the loved-up display was a sign that an engagement was in the offing.
But a week later, Hayley shocked fans when she confirmed the pair had split. She wrote: ‘It is with regret I announce that myself and Mark have gone our separate ways. We had the best year together and I truly wish him all the best for the future.’
A clue is to be found in the words of one well-placed source who said Mark never got over the break-up with Katie: ‘She has always been the love of his life’
But her words hid the depths of her sadness. The TV presenter had been dumped by Mark in a 9am phone call just hours before, leaving her in shock.
A friend of Hayley’s said: ‘They’d gone on Loose Women to talk about their one-year anniversary and were so loved up. As far as Hayley was concerned everything was going in the right direction; they even spoke about moving in together.’
The fallout from the break-up has led to friends of the couple questioning whether the relationship was as perfect as it seemed.
And as the unexpected heartbreaker rebuilds bridges with his ex-wife, many fans are asking: what’s next for The Beast’s colourful dating life?
A clue is to be found in the words of one well-placed source who tells me Mark never got over the break-up with Katie: ‘She has always been the love of his life.’