'I made a list of all the reasons I loved him and wanted to stay with him'
The wife of comic Rory McGrath has vowed to stand by him after he was convicted of harassing a former mistress, saying she had made a list of all the reasons she loved him.
Nicola McGrath, who has been married to the former They Think It's All Over panellist since 2005, described his behaviour as an "aberration", but said their relationship and history was worth saving.
Last week McGrath, 60, received a suspended prison sentence after admitting harassing a former lover during what was described as a "deliberate and pre-planned" campaign, which he launched when she tried to end their affair.
But in her first interview since the sentencing, Mrs McGrath, 61, said that despite the hurt the affair has caused her, she had decided to stick by her husband.
She told The Mail on Sunday: "In the end I made a life list, almost like something you would stick on the fridge of all the reasons I loved him and wanted to stay with him."
She went on: "Supporting him was the only choice I could make... If it's a cold night I like to get into bed and cuddle into Rory and I can't imagine a life without being held by him, even though he has caused me unimaginable hurt.
"What happened was awful but I believe it was an aberration and that we have a marriage and history worth saving.
"I have to live with the fact that he had an affair with another woman. And I have to live with the hurt of how hard it was for him to give her up. But it is over now and I am optimistic about our future and a life without her in it."
In court it emerged that McGrath had met the "much younger and more attractive" woman - who cannot be named for legal reasons - in 2010, when she was unhappily married.
The pair started an affair but by 2014 she had become unhappy with the relationship and wanted it to end.
Prosecutor Anthony Abell explained: "She began to find Mr McGrath to be difficult and unpleasant company and she was seeking to disengage from the affair.
"She was very conscious of the fact that he had several photographs of them together, including some intimate photographs of her as well.
"Sad to say, the defendant seems to have found it very very difficult to deal with the end of this relationship.
"From the beginning of June 2015, right until August 2016, he pursued a course of conduct which he himself at one stage described as 'unstable and tempestuous'.”
In mitigation, Angela Rafferty QC said McGrath had not intended to cause pain. She said: “She is much younger and a very attractive and glamorous woman. He might not thank me for saying it, but it may be there is a mid-life crisis aspect to his conduct.”
Sentencing him to 10 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, district judge Ken Sheraton told McGrath: “This was a persistent, consistent and controlling imposition of yourself on the victim.
"This conduct was constant and involved threats in the form of involving others or the use of personal photographs.”
A five-year restraining order was imposed preventing McGrath from contacting the victim or her family directly or indirectly.
McGrath said he was deeply grateful that his wife had agreed to stand by him.
He said: "If Nicola had left me I would have understood because it is what I deserve. That she hasn't is nothing short of miraculous."
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