Marco Pierre White: I dumped my wife on our honeymoon

His reputation in and out of the kitchen precedes him but the celebrity chef still insists he’s misunderstood.

The name Marco Pierre White is most often followed by the words “made Gordon Ramsay cry” – but there is much more to him than his notoriety as a butt-kicking super chef. No sooner had MasterChef: The Professionals debuted on Network Ten than the Twitterverse went into overdrive, with women fawning over the dapper manner of the English chef.

“Marco Pierre White is actually sexy. He has a dignified air about him,” tweeted one fan. The feeling is clearly mutual. “They’re very beautiful, very beautiful, very elegant, very kind, very polite, very graceful,” gushes Marco, 51, of Aussie ladies. Spend five minutes in his presence and it’s obvious why Marco is as famous for his rock star charisma as his culinary prowess. “He’s a charismatic bloke,” MasterChef co-host Matt Preston says. “He’s very charming and has beautiful manners, and as your mother told you, ‘If he wears good shoes and has good nails…’”

Despite Marco’s softly spoken allure, his turbulent marital history reveals a man who enjoys some heat in and out of the kitchen. His first marriage, to surgeon’s daughter Alex McArthur in 1988, lasted less than two years and produced a daughter, Letitia. “I came from a hard, working-class world, which since my mother’s death, had been dominated by men,” Marco recalled in his 2006 autobiography White Slave. “When it came to sharing my emotions, I mustn’t have been the most communicative husband.

“All of a sudden there I was, married to a nice, middle-class girl…” Two years later, Marco popped the question to 21-year-old model Lisa Butcher, three weeks after meeting her at a London nightclub. Again, the romance ended abruptly soon after it began. “I don’t remember blazing rows with Lisa,” Marco wrote in his autobiography. “It just fizzled out. Within 15 weeks we had separated.” He maintains the marriage was a mistake but Lisa was still heartbroken when they broke up on their honeymoon.