@StrawberryWasp I agree with some of what you said in your post, the bit about ageism.
I don't agree with much of the rest.
Carrie was an 'ordinary young woman' at uni who enjoyed being in the limelight. (I know people who were at uni with her.)
It takes 2 to tango, but I have little regard for someone who has an affair with a man already married, with 4 children to that wife. And it just happened that by getting to know him, she could further her contacts, career and future. (She'd allegedly been sacked from her previous job because of falsifying expenses on taxis.)
The way I see both of them is as purely selfish people who will ride roughshod over anyone who gets in the way of their ambitions. I couldn't care less how many kids they have but as he's not in office any more, and may not even be an MP soon, I don't see how why they need to be in the media now.