THE wife of Hampshire MP Mark Oaten has told how she is standing by her man despite his fling with a rent boy.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Echo's sister paper The Hampshire Chronicle, Belinda Oaten says they are now "only looking forward" as a family at their home in Bramdean, near Winchester.
Mrs Oaten, 39, spoke out 15 months after the scandal was revealed involving her husband, who is standing down at the next election.
Describing former Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark, her husband of 14 years, as her "soulmate", she has refused to divulge why she no longer wears her wedding ring or to discuss the state of their marriage, other than to say: "I think, you know, we are a family, so there is a long-term future."
Instead she shares her delight at being accepted by Winchester School of Art to study for a BA in graphic design from September and her hopes of starting a new career as an artist.
She said: "We are 15 months on and we are just really focused on the family and our commitments with jobs, careers, courses and all those sort of things."
Mrs Oaten said she had turned down an offer for I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, while Mark turned down an invitation to go on Big Brother.
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