A BRITISH chef has become one of America’s most hated men after his wife’s claim that he ditched her and their kids went viral on a Facebook page aimed at catching cheats.
Having been “ghosted” by her husband Charles Withers for nine months, Ashley McGuire reached out to social media in the hope that someone knew his whereabouts.
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And within 24 hours he had been tracked down, thanks to evidence that he was cooking for American film and TV writer Taylor Sheridan.
Ashley, who has two kids with the cook — the son of a millionaire banker and an entrepreneur — told radio station Jam’N 94.5 in Boston, Massachusetts that he had now contacted her and agreed to meet.
She wanted to find out where he lived so she could serve him divorce papers and “get on with my life”.
But the interview with her friend Ashlee Feldman, who hosts a show on the station, cast Charles in a very negative light.
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Ashley alleged he had never seen his younger child, and said she’d had to drive herself to hospital to give birth.
For people saying I’m looking for money – if you can take these girls out on dates on Bumble you can send a box of diapers
Ashley McGuire
She added: “I loved this man. If he doesn’t want to be with me, fine, but to dip on your kids (to ditch them) is insane.
“I’m a single mum of four. For him to just go poof — all of that responsibility comes down on me.
“For people saying I’m looking for money — if you can take these girls out on dates on (dating app) Bumble you can send a box of diapers.”
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Single mum Ashley has two children with Charles and two others from before their time together.
Wealthy family
She claimed Charles had intended to adopt her 11-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
Her online anguish led to an outpouring of negative comments across the US about the absent dad.
Charles, 29, had been making a name for himself in the culinary world, having worked for Michelin-starred chefs and appeared as a contestant on the American TV cookery contest Chopped in 2022.
Now he is the latest man seemingly to get his comeuppance on Facebook page Are We Dating The Same Guy?
Ashley, 32, posted her plea for help in the popular private group, where women share tales of supposedly dodgy dates and cheating men.
One woman told The Sun she had been matched with Charles on Bumble and they had chatted for a couple of days.
But once she became aware of Ashley’s search for her husband, she decided not to go any further.
The woman claims: “He said he’s an experienced private chef and he could teach me things like that. You could tell he’s charming.
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“On Are We Dating The Same Guy someone has screenshotted that post. I thought, ‘Oh my God, he looks familiar’, so I went and checked and it was the same guy.”
It seems Charles had other problems too.
American Express sued him for debts of £44,000 last November and his restaurant in Falmouth, Massachusetts, went under, with customers complaining about not being able to get gift card money back.
Records suggest he has been moving all over the US since leaving his wife, while internet sleuths say he is now in Dallas, Texas — 1,800 miles from his kids.
A TikTok user spotted a video sent out by Taylor Sheridan’s wife Nicole, in which Charles appeared.
It was quickly deleted, and Taylor, who made the hit Kevin Costner TV series Yellowstone, has neither confirmed nor denied employing Ashley’s husband as a personal chef.
The furore online was enough to persuade Charles to break cover, but he has yet to comment on any of Ashley’s allegations.
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Inquiries by The Sun suggest he could have the means to provide financially for his kids, as he appears to be from a very wealthy family.
He was born in London, studied at private school and lived a jetset lifestyle.
He told a local newspaper in Boston about his upbringing: “My dad was in finance, and my mother works in the start-up industry. She’s an amazing woman.
“She was actually one of the first women in the United Kingdom to get a gold card with British Airways because she flew so much with work. We always did a lot of travelling.”
The youngest of three brothers, Charles lived in Mauritius, Singapore and South Africa before going to study at a US college.
He got a taste for cooking and at the age of 25 earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand award.
When the pandemic hit in 2020 he decided to move to Falmouth, a coastal town in Cape Cod, which is the US East Coast’s playground for the rich, and where his grandparents have a summer home.
He decided being a husband and a dad wasn’t the lifestyle he wanted anymore and he ghosted – like gone without a trace
Ashley McGuire
In June 2021 he took over the town’s C Salt restaurant but staffing problems and other Covid-related issues appear to have hit the business, which is now closed for good.
When he appeared on the cookery show Chopped, he told audiences: “There is no ingredient I can’t handle.”
Ashley was won over by Charles, who she described as “very charming”, and they got married.
But according to her, he left the family home more than a year ago and then last summer he stopped making contact with her.
Ashley says she tried all his various phone numbers and reached out to his family, but couldn’t find out where he was.
In desperation, on Sunday she posted on Facebook’s Are We Dating The Same Guy?: “Last year, when I was pregnant with our youngest baby, he decided being a husband and a dad wasn’t the lifestyle he wanted any more and he ghosted — like gone without a trace.”
Internal struggles
The message immediately went viral, and was reposted on other social media platforms such as X/Twitter and TikTok.
Ashley received hundreds of leads, some of which were wrong, but many that proved to be correct.
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They included women who claimed that her husband was on the dating app Bumble and was saying he had no children.
Then on Monday she appeared on the radio station in Boston and revealed that Charles had finally made contact with her at last.
She said: “I did not intentionally make him the most hated man out there by any means.
“I hope he’s good. For somebody to turn their life upside down, there’s obviously some internal struggles there — there’s a lot going on.
“But at the same time to just walk away from all responsibility, just walk away like it never happened is just . . . you can’t do that.”
The Are We Dating The Same Guy? Facebook page first sprang up in New York two years ago, since when it has been copied in cities and countries across the world, including Britain.
To just walk away from all responsibility, just walk away like it never happened is just, you can’t do that
Ashley McGuire
On it, women post photos of men they have dated or are thinking of dating, to see if anyone else knows them.
Sometimes they find out that the love rats are seeing more than one woman.
But the pages are proving to be controversial.
US businessman Stewart Lucas Murrey is suing more than 50 members of the Los Angeles Are We Dating The Same Guy? group for comments made about him.
He wants £1.7million for the damage he alleges the women caused to his reputation.
It started when one woman, Kelly Gibbons, posted on the private pages that she thought Stewart had been rude during a phone conversation, then other users chipped in with their own thoughts.
The threat of legal action has led group moderators to be more cautious.
Women signing up to the London group are warned not to screenshot messages and to avoid posting anything defamatory about the men featured.
It also says: “Be mentally prepared for the things you say here to get back to who you wrote about.”
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But for the hundreds of thousands of members across the world, it remains a useful way to rate a date.
The page certainly worked out well for Ashley, who quickly achieved her aim — to speak to her long-lost husband.
Source: Sun
