'I was stranded in Venice and had a little fling' Mel Sykes tells pal Alan Carr

16 July 2023 , 16:42

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Presenter Melanie Sykes and Riccardo Simionato (Image: NASH / BACKGRID)

Venice has always been the city of love, but it was unexpectedly so for Mel Sykes and her gondolier.

A chance mishap with her passport meant she found herself in a fairytale tryst on the beautiful canals of the “next level romantic” Italian city with gondola boatman Riccardo Simionato, who is 27 years her junior.

“I wasn’t expecting to meet a gondolier in Venice,” she laughs. “I wanted my whole life to go with a romantic partner because I thought that was the way to do it,” recalls Mel.

Mel was speaking on Alan Carr’s Life’s A Beach podcast (ITV Network)

“It was in 2020, Europe had just opened up, and I was like a dog out of a trap. I needed to get away, I love to travel and I felt incarcerated so I thought, ‘I ’m not waiting for a boyfriend. I’m going to go myself and just be there.’ I met Riccardo less than 24 hours after we got there.”

Unfortunately - or, fortunately, as it turned out - Mel mislaid her passport so couldn’t return home.

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“I was stranded in Venice which was extraordinary, so I was able to have a little fling,” she giggles, speaking to Alan Carr’s Life’s A Beach podcast.

Mel, who was previously married to Jack Cockings and dated Matt Goss and Olly Murs, has previously said she and Riccardo had “insane chemistry” as he was “intelligent, funny and respectful”, adding the pair were “really into each other”.

Fate certainly helped, as soon her passport was discovered. “It was in my bedsheets,” she says.

Ashleigh Rainbird