Chris Tarrant’s wife admits installing tracking device and hiring private detective to catch him cheating

Chris Tarrant’s ex-wife Ingrid has detailed the shocking lengths she went to catch her husband cheating.

The 70-year-old was married to the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? presenter between 1991 and 2007, and the couple have two children together. Their relationship fell apart when it was revealed that Tarrant had been unfaithful to his wife.

However, Ingrid has said that she was forced to go to extraordinary lengths to prove her suspicions after Tarrant denied the accusations for years. She hired a private detective, tracked his car, and got a burner phone to locate him, in an effort to reveal the truth.

“I had confirmation by putting a private detective on him,” she told Best’s Suddenly Single series. “But several years before, I thought, ‘Something's not right.’ I asked him outright, ‘Are you thinking of having an affair? Are you having an affair?’ [He said:] ‘Oh, don't be ridiculous, of course not,’ and I 100 per cent believed him.”

Years later, Ingrid approached her husband again after she continued to feel unsettled about his fidelity in the relationship.

“Something was telling me he was lying,” she said. “I thought the only way to find out if to put a private detective on him.

“I had to get a tracker fitted to Chris's car. So I needed an excuse to get his car for the day to have it fitted. So I asked to borrow it as I needed to get some straw from the stables.”

But fitting the tracker was more complicated than she had anticipated, and Ingrid found herself “shimmying across the floor” to complete the operation.

“It took them so long to wire it as he'd just had video screens installed for the kids,” she continued. “Then he had another car but I bought a burner phone [to track the location] but I had to keep charging that up.

“At the time there were moments when I thought this [was] insane. I would be shimmying across the floor, being really quiet to get the keys to go out and charge [the phone]. I had so many sleepless nights because I had to charge it while he was asleep and before he woke up in the morning.”

Tarrant released a statement in September 2006 saying he was “deeply sorry” for the hurt he caused and took full responsibility.

“I am deeply sorry for the hurt I have caused to my loyal wife and wonderful children, all of whom I adore,” he said at the time. “I have only myself to blame for the breakdown of my marriage.”

The Independent has contacted representatives for Tarrant for comment.

The former presenter of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? started his TV career on the current affairs programme ATV Today, which he presented from 1964 to 1981. He is best known for presenting the popular quiz show from 1998 to 2014.