Charlotte Dawson fiancé’s ‘dirty text’ scandal is latest shocking family drama after blackmail saga & trolls’ sick games
WITH her hair in curlers and make-up perfectly applied, Charlotte Dawson beamed for an Instagram snap as she got ready for her son’s first birthday party.
The glam shot sent a clear message to fiancé rugby player Matt Sarsfield, who was exposed a day earlier for sending “secret dirty texts” to another woman.
Not only is the Ex on the Beach star prepared to put her kids first but she won’t be beaten by his behaviour, which is said to have left Charlotte “blindsided and humiliated.”
It’s a typical move from a woman who has faced adversity throughout her life – from growing up without her famous comic dad Les Dawson, to the fear of seeing her youngest child being rushed to hospital with a dangerous virus.
She has also suffered a devastating miscarriage and been mercilessly trolled by strangers – including one who reported her to social services on scurrilous claims.
Former Swinton Lions player Matt, 32, is said to have sent another woman an intimate picture after she posted about going for a run on Instagram last month.
Emily Louise Hodgkinson, 34, said she was shocked to receive the image after meeting Matt through an ex-boyfriend who used to play rugby with him.
Emily told the Mirror: “I feel so sorry for Charlotte. How could he do that to her? I’d be mortified if a partner did that to me behind my back.”
The news understandably left Charlotte reeling.
The 31-year-old yesterday took to Instagram to make it clear her boys Noah, three, and one-year-old Jude are her main concern.
She wrote: “I’m extremely hurt, upset and disappointed about the situation.
“It’s hard enough going through something like this in private, let alone publicly. My only focus now is on my beautiful boys as they are my main priority.”
Charlotte and Matt started dating in November 2016 but split three months later before getting back together in December 2017.
She later told The Sun that she “couldn’t stay away” from him as they moved in together.
In September 2020, Matt proposed to Charlotte next to the statue of her late father, Les Dawson, who died of a heart attack aged 62 in 1993. The couple were already expecting their first child Noah.
Charlotte was just a baby when Blankety Blank star Les died suddenly, leaving his second wife Tracy to bring her up alone.
She never really got to know her half brothers and sisters, Stuart, Julie and Pam, now in their 50s, amid a long-running family rift.
Les’s other children lost their mum, Meg, to cancer and struggled to accept Charlotte’s mum Tracy, who was 18 years Les’s junior.
A row over who would pay for the comedy king’s cremation service, after he failed to stipulate who would be liable for it in his will, made the situation worse.
Les told Radio 4 how Tracy saved his life when their love affair began, because he was drinking himself to death.
“I need to give affection and love,” he said, “because without that I wither.”
Having recovered from two previous heart attacks and prostate problems, he also said: “If I could give five happy years to Charlotte, I’d be content.”
He died two weeks later.
Despite being a tiny baby when her dad died, Charlotte says she has always felt a connection to him and has a tattoo of him on the back of her neck.
In 2003, when Charlotte was 10, her mum Tracy said: “He’s a vivid presence in her life, and when friends come to the house for the first time she always puts on one of his old television sketches on the video.”
In 2013, Charlotte told how the old films and images of her dad have helped her in tough times.
She said: “He kept everything from scan pictures to photos of mum in labour, the birth and all of us together all through the time we had before he died.
“Every time I got upset that he wasn’t there for a sports day or parents’ evening, they got me through.
“I feel lucky that I can see first-hand how much he loved me.”
The reality star, who rose to fame on MTV, has had a tumultuous few years.
In 2020, she revealed her brother-in-law Glen, married to her big sister Samantha, had taken his own life.
Sharing moving pictures of them together, she said Glen had been struggling with the death of his mum as well as the impact of the pandemic on his business.
At the time she praised Matt for his support, calling him her “rock.”
Tragic loss
In April 2022, when Noah was 18 months old, Charlotte fell pregnant again, but sadly suffered a miscarriage at 10 weeks.
Speaking about her loss on Instagram, she told how she was left devastated as she recounted the moment she was told her baby had gone.
She said: “I was shaking, I could not stop crying, I was just heartbroken, absolutely heartbroken.
“I told everyone that I was expecting a baby, and it was heartbreaking, my whole world came crashing down.”
The TV personality told how Noah “saved” her after the loss and in February 2023 announced she was pregnant with little Jude.
Matt and Charlotte, who recently showed off her impressive post-pregnancy weight loss, suffered a scare when Jude was five months old and nearly died from RSV Bronchitis in October last year.
He was hooked up to oxygen for six days after struggling to breath and changing colour as the doctors told Charlotte he “would have died” had he come in a day later.
She has since called for more awareness about the viral infection, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) which is extremely common in children under two, but can cause complications.
She told her one million Instagram followers how frightened she was at the time, saying: “I just knew something wasn’t right. It’s a mother’s instinct, you just know something’s not right.
“He was doing this proper screaming.
One minute I’m happy and one minute I’m low
Charlotte on being trolled
“On the Wednesday night the screaming started again like he was in loads of pain and I just knew it wasn’t right and wasn’t like Jude at all.”
Charlotte said nurses praised her for taking her son to hospital “because his oxygen levels are so low.”
She added: “His colouring was grey. A horrible, horrible colour.”
Troll torment
After Jude’s birth, Charlotte was horribly mum-shamed by Internet trolls who criticised her for giving Jude a dummy and not yet potty training Noah, who was just two.
The trolling took a sinister turn when a mystery person twice reported her to social services over cruel fake allegations on social media.
In November last year she said she knew who the troll was.
During an appearance on the Nip and Tuck podcast, with Lauren Harris and Ashley Stobart, she said it was someone surprisingly closer to home than she thought.
Who was Les Dawson?
Les Dawson was one of Britain's most loved comics
Supposedly, according to his biography, Les played piano in a Parisian brothel – this was before his television debut on Opportunity Knocks in 1967 which helped launch his career.
On Opportunity Knocks, Les and his partner-in-crime, Roy Barrablough, played elderly women who were essentially authentic characters of the time but with extra pantomime features.
In the 1970s and 80s, Les hosted Listen to Les on BBC Radio 2, as well as a number of TV shows like Sez Les, The Dawson Watch and The Les Dawson Show.
Les’ last TV appearance was on Surprise Surprise, hosted by Cilla Black.
Les was married twice throughout his life.
His first wife, Margaret Dawson, was together with Les from 1960 until the day she died on 15 April 1986 from cancer.
They had three children together, Julie, Pamela and Stuart.
Three years later he married his second wife, Tracy, with whom Les was together with until his death.
They had one child together, Charlotte, who was born on October 3, 1992.
Les Dawson died on June 10, 1993.
He was attending a hospital in Manchester for a routine medical check-up with his wife, Tracy.
While he was awaiting the results he sadly passed away after suffering a major heart-attack.
She said the reports to the NSPCC had taken a toll on her wellbeing.
Charlotte said: “I’m not even in a normal state of mind right now. I’m still really down and low. I’m not in real life, you know when you’re in your baby bubble, one minute I’m happy and one minute I’m low.
“Hearing this again, it’s making me want to come off Instagram. I don’t know what to do, maybe I’m best not showing Noah and Jude, I’m just trying to be a good mum.”
In a final cruel twist, in January this year Charlotte revealed that Matt’s Facebook and email accounts had been hacked and that scammers had spent £700 on his bank card. They subsequently tried to blackmail him for £500 to delete the details.
The following month baby Jude was admitted to hospital again with RSV and the Celebs Go Dating star said she fears he will suffer asthma when he gets older.
Matt and Charlotte have been through thick and thin since he first proposed next to her dad’s bronze memorial statue in Lytham St Anne’s, Lancs, in September 2020.
He even vowed to take the famous family name of Dawson when they finally tied the knot.
Just what will happen now is unclear after Charlotte seemingly celebrated Jude’s first birthday without her partner.
More certain is that after a string of such tough trials, she won’t let it beat her.
