Inside UK’s affair capital where wives cheat with toyboys...

LOUNGING in her beautiful home on a leafy street, Hannah Turner has the luxury lifestyle most women could only dream of. There’s a Porsche on the drive, a gardener and cleaner hard at work, and housewife Hannah, 51, spends her days shopping and exercising her polo ponies. When the mum-of-one married investment banker Hugo, 71, back in 2001, she was able to give up her job as a publisher to raise their daughter and has been a lady of leisure ever since.

Image Credit: The Sun [Couple embracing in a hotel room.]

Sounds ideal - but look a little closer and life behind closed doors isn’t quite as 'picture perfect' as it first appears. Hannah and her husband haven’t had sex for years – in fact, she even admits the 20-year age gap between them now makes her skin crawl, as her greying, sagging husband has become ‘doddery’. But that's not to say her sex life has dried up. In fact, she's still getting plenty of action, having embarked on a secret affair with a younger man – just like all of her girlfriends do.

Image Credit: The Sun [Aerial view of Cheltenham, UK.]

Shocked? Welcome to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire - dubbed the 'affair capital' of the UK. The unassuming town was named the number one spot for adultery in a recent poll by extra-marital website Illicit Encounters - with seven per cent of the population confessing to having been unfaithful. Extreme wealth, beautiful properties and a location on the commuter belt – as well as being the home of one of the UK’s biggest networks of spies – mean it’s easy to see how it became a hotbed of secrets and lies...

Image Credit: The Sun [Welcome to Cheltenham Spa sign.]

In Hannah's case, she admits she was blown away by husband Hugo’s wealth and movie-star good looks when she met him, when he was 50. They met at a mutual friend’s wedding and within weeks, were an item. “He was very alluring,” she recalls. “He owned a gorgeous, whopping-big Georgian town house, a collection of high-end cars, and a number of polo ponies. “He was charming, but if I’m honest, I think I was probably taken in more by the lifestyle he could offer me.”.

Image Credit: The Sun [A man and woman facing each other in front of a hedge.]

After the pair married two years into their relationship, they had a daughter together, and Hannah gave up work. But as her husband got older, the attraction started to fade. “Now, when I look at him, he’s greying, sagging, a little bit doddery – and I just think, ‘I don’t fancy you’. “We don’t have sex any more. I’m not sure what I would do if he tried to be intimate with me now – I’d be horrified.

Image Credit: The Sun [Cars parked on a street in Cheltenham, UK.]

“I do feel guilty, because he’s provided me with the perfect life, but money isn’t everything. "He doesn’t show me any affection – I feel completely ignored and alone. I feel more like a carer.". Worried that her sex life was over in her 50s, Hannah decided to set out to have an affair a year ago. “I didn’t just want a fumble in a hotel with a stranger – I wanted a proper emotional connection, a real relationship with someone,” she explains.

Image Credit: The Sun [A hand on a doorknob peeks into a bedroom where a couple lies in bed.]

“Luckily, I met a man who is three years younger than me, who is also in a loveless marriage. "He has young children, so doesn’t want to leave his wife, but we had an instant connection. Because my husband is retired, he’s at home all the time, so I do need to be careful what I tell him about where I’m going. “We started off going for coffee dates out of town, where nobody would see us. Then a few weeks later we booked into a hotel during the day and had the most amazing, connected sex of my life.

Image Credit: The Sun [A topless woman holding a tennis racket.]

“Because my husband is retired, he’s at home all the time, so I do need to be careful what I tell him about where I’m going. “Usually, I’ll just tell him I’m going shopping, and I’m always careful to make sure I factor in some time to grab something on the way home in a bag, even if it’s just picking up dinner. He doesn’t seem to care. "I admit I do enjoy the thrill of thinking that we might get caught out though, even though I know we’re very careful about where we go and not arriving or leaving together.”.

Image Credit: The Sun [Two women holding coffee cups in a park.]

Hannah says she’s not alone – all of her girlfriends are in the same boat. “We do joke it is a bit like Rivals,” Hannah says. “Our husbands are all a bit older, they are mostly bankers and work in the city, and have provided us with wonderful lifestyles. “But like me, they mostly feel ignored and aren’t attracted to their husbands any more now they are older. "We always tell them we are going out with each other, and I’d always cover for them if anyone ever asked if they were with me.”.

Image Credit: The Sun [Portrait of a woman in a green fleece jacket.]

Marriage counsellor Natasha Silverman says she’s seen a huge leap in the number of couples she sees struggling with infidelity issues since relocating to Cheltenham from London four years ago. She says: "Infidelity definitely comes up significantly more as an issue for couples to work through in Cheltenham than it does anywhere else I have worked. “There could be a number of reasons - one of the biggest issues I see is that it’s simply too expensive here for people to separate.