Help Cant Do Links!!! This is from my local paper today:-
The dangers of wife swapping
10 January 2005 11:42
A Norwich couple have revealed their fury at a television programme which they claimed wrongly portrayed them as sexual deviants and tyrants.
Bonny Leftwich and her husband Pete hit the screens last Wednesday after taking part in Channel 4 series Wife Swap ? the show was dubbed the weirdest swap ever.
The pair, who live in Hellesdon with their nine-year-old son Zachary, have told the Evening News about their anger with the makers of the show.
Mrs Leftwich said she was so depressed by her portrayal that she has barely left her house since it was screened.
The hugely popular programme involves two wives swapping homes for 14 days.
The wives each spend a week living by their own rules, and a week living by the other woman's regime.
Mrs Leftwich swapped with Derenda Jarrold, a mother of four from Doncaster ? the pair were shown as being poles apart in their domestic approach.
Mrs Jarrold was portrayed as a lazy wife determined to let her partner Alani do all the chores.
Mrs Leftwich was shown as an obedient housewife at the beck and call of her overbearing husband.
She said: "I haven't really gone out since it was on, I have been depressed by it.
"I don't know why they (the producers) tried to make me look so bad.
"We both feel betrayed. I was very disappointed with the programme ? there were two claims in it that I was very upset with.
"The first was that we leave Zachary alone for an hour while me and Pete go upstairs when he gets back from work.
"The second is that Zachary can hear us ? we never do anything while Zachary can hear.
"I think the whole programme made me come across as if I was a bad mother ? but Zachary is just as an important part of my family as Pete."
The family said they were paid just £500 for their two-week stint in front of the cameras ? which included 60 hours of filming.
The pair were accepted for the show a year ago and changed their minds many times before eventually deciding to go through with it.
Mrs Leftwich said: "I just thought it would be something different, exciting and interesting.
"Anyone that knows me knows that my children always come first and Pete is not a tyrant ? he doesn't tell me what to do.
"They made me look like a sexual deviant ? that was really upsetting."
She said the animosity highlighted on the show between the two families did not exist and that they were friends.
The couple both said many positive aspects of the show were left on the cutting room floor as the producers egged them on into fulfulling stereotypes.
Mr Leftwich, who works as an accountant in Little Melton, near Norwich, said: "We were totally misrepresented.
"I'm angry with the television company for twisting things round and making it look like I spend an hour in the bedroom with Bonny while Zac sits at the computer.
"There was a part where I took Zac swimming and to Salhouse Broad, and we all had a good time together ? even the crew were falling about laughing. But it wasn't all put in. I regret doing it now."
He said the reaction from his work colleagues to the programme had been one of sympathy.
Nobody from Channel 4 was available to comment at the time of going to press.
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