Jilted Hayley Palmer, 42, claimed the 6ft 7in quizzer, nicknamed The Beast, said he was ending their year-long romance because he did not want to divorce his ex Katie.

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In an exclusive interview with The Sun on Sunday, glamorous Sky entertainment reporter Hayley said: “He has really lived up to his name.

“The Beast has been a beast.

“It has come as a complete shock. I thought we were really happy.

“I’m heartbroken and blindsided. His behaviour has been beastly.”

Hayley admitted she “doesn’t know what happened” as they had just celebrated their first anniversary on May 16 with a trip to the beach in Southsea, Hants, visiting the same place they shared their first date, followed by a meal.

They had even appeared on ITV’s Loose Women days earlier and spoken about their relationship — and their future together.

Hayley said that before their shock split, Mark, 58 — who has a seven-year-old son with Katie — had even suggested they move in together.

He lives in Rotherham while she is based in Chelsea, West London.

But in a devastating 9am call on May 24, just days after she had asked him what was happening with his divorce, Mark told her: “I don’t think we should see each other any more.

“You were right, I don’t want to get a divorce.”

Struggling to hold back tears, Hayley said: “The call started off as a normal conversation.

“He was spending time with his son and we’d had a conversation about me joining them at a water park.

“Then he said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but you were right. I don’t want to divorce my ex-wife’.

“The shock of the way he said it was so brutally cold and not the Mark I know.

“I thought he was a gentle giant, so this was the complete opposite.

“He was as cold as ice.

“The phone went from my hands, I just hung up on him.

“I ended up walking around for three hours not knowing where I was going.

‘LOW MOVE’

“I’ll never get over the shock of that, I’m still in shock now.

“It’s such a hurtful way to do it.

“If he had said, ‘Can we meet up? Can we talk about things?

“This is my situation and I just don’t think it’s going to work out’, then we could have worked through it.

“Or if that’s what you really think then we could have ended on nicer terms, because we’d had such an amazing year together.

“I would have respected his decision if he’d come to me.

“The fact that he didn’t have the respect for me, and for him to do it over the phone — it was a really low move.

“I can’t get that voice out of my head — the way he said it to me.”

Recalling how she had been willing to put her heart on the line for Mark, Hayley added: “He’d already suggested that we move in together, and it was a risk I was willing to take because I really loved him and believed we had a future together.”

Mark had split from Katie, 31, who is also his second cousin, after she cheated on him with a younger bloke for more than a year.

He went on to meet Hayley, herself a statuesque 5ft 11in, at the National Television Awards in September 2022.

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They became friends before romance blossomed in May last year.

Hayley said: “I remember one night we went to the stage show Dirty Dancing as friends.

“I asked him what his situation was because I knew there were going to be photographers there.

“I certainly did not sign up to be in any sticky situation with his ex-wife.

“I gave good grace that he would go through with the divorce and that he was an honest and genuine person.

“He gave me his word that he was going through with that divorce.

“And it turns out, a year later, that was not the case.”

Hayley said that while Mark would regularly see his son, who we are not naming, she believed he and Katie were co-parenting on good terms.

She insists she has no idea if he has rekindled a relationship with his ex.

Hayley revealed: “I don’t know . . . you’d have to ask him about that.

“All I know is that I gave him my full trust so, for me, I just believed he was spending time with his family — which is what I expected.

“But my trust has been completely broken and, for me, there would be no going back.”

Hayley admits she had pressed Mark about his divorce a few days before he ended their relationship.

When it happened I was in such shock and was so angry that I blocked him on everything.

Hayley Palmer

She said: “We’d had the best year, he was the kindest, loveliest gentleman, so I just felt like it was the right time to follow up on the issue of his divorce.

“When I met him, he said it was going through.

“But then, throughout the year, whenever I brought it up he’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re in the process of that happening, I should know more in a couple of weeks’.

“So I asked him again as we were now a year down the line.

“He told me that the divorce had come to a halt, which really upset me because I felt like we were going into our next chapter, and maybe moving in together, something that he had suggested, and there were definitely things to look forward to.

“I also brought up the fact that I hadn’t met his little boy. He said it was because his ex-wife would not allow that.

“That also upset me. We were having this discussion and I came away feeling really upset about it all. I was definitely misled.”

Hayley blocked Mark straight after his bombshell call, so she has no idea if he tried to contact her again.

She said: “When it happened I was in such shock and was so angry that I blocked him on everything.

“As far as I was concerned there was nothing more to say.

“If we could have discussed it face to face and left it on good terms, I feel like that would have been a better way to go about it.

“I thought we had a future and that it would be forever and that we’d built up such a good thing together.

“He did lovebomb me in a way. He spoiled me, we had these trips together, lovely meals out and date nights.

‘I GAVE HIM SO MUCH’

“We went to Los Angeles, on a cruise from Tenerife to Southampton and stayed in a Champneys spa in Hertfordshire.

“I even went on Loose Women and said, ‘Girls, don’t give up hope, there’s really good guys out there’.

“I wouldn’t have done that if I had any inclination of what was coming.

“The fact we went on national television the week before, if I had any doubt in my mind, there’s no way I would have gone on telly. It’s embarrassing.”

In the aftermath of the call Hayley struggled to even get out of bed.

She said: “I’ve been the lowest I’ve ever been.

“Everyone who knows me knows I’m the happiest person, and very positive. I didn’t even want to get out of bed.

“I’ve not been in a good place at all. Thankfully I’ve got a lot of good people around me and they’ve helped me through it.

“Even now I’m having shaky times, my mental health has really suffered. I’m having to dig deep and really find myself.

“I realise I gave him so much love. I gave so much to him and actually I didn’t give that much to myself. I don’t know why this happened.”

Despite her heartbreak Hayley is determined to look to the future and will never give up on her dream of finding love.

She said: “I don’t think we will ever be having a discussion. I have to leave it and draw a line under it.

I believe he led me down the garden path by saying he was going through a divorce when clearly he wasn’t

Hayley Palmer

“I won’t ever give up on love, I won’t give up on the fairytale.

“I brought a fun side out of him and he taught me lots of facts and figures.

“These were mainly quiz answers, but he’d often help with my work too by producing facts about people when I got a last-minute TV job to talk about them, such as when OJ Simpson died, he had all the facts.

“He would always say that I helped him become a lot more sociable.

“I’ve got such a bubbly personality and he admired the way I could just chat to anyone about anything.”

Hayley revealed she will cherish the memories of her time with the ITV quiz show star.

She said: “We really did have a blast. I thank him for being the kind person he was. It’s been a lesson for me.

“He is a good guy, but I believe he led me down the garden path by saying he was going through a divorce when clearly he wasn’t.

“I don’t think he will reach out but, if I bumped into him at a showbiz event I’d wish him well.

“Will I ever be able to watch The Chase again? . . . I didn’t watch it anyway.”

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