Lord Chancellor’s wife backs separate bedrooms because ‘over-familiarity is the enemy of intimacy’

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By Alex Aldridge on

Michael Gove’s sex life hits the news

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The Lord Chancellor may be rueing the fact that his wife is a journalist — after she penned an article celebrating the joys of married couples having separate bedrooms.

“Quite when it became the accepted view that people who love each other must spend all night in the same bed, I’m not sure — but it was a very bad idea,” proclaimed Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail yesterday, adding further into her piece:

The Victorians had the right idea: the key to a healthy, happy marriage is separate bedrooms. Not because marriage must be devoid of passion but because they understood that over-familiarity is the enemy of intimacy — and that a refreshing night’s sleep is vital.

Vine, who describes herself as the Daily Mail‘s “resident Wednesday witch” on her Twitter profile, got hitched to Michael Gove back in the days when the pair both worked as hacks at The Times.

Since then Gove’s career has soared, after being elected to parliament in 2005, while Vine has established herself as a well-known writer.

As overseer of lawyers’ destinies, the Lord Chancellor role is heavy on the pomp and ceremony beloved of the legal profession, with Gove memorably cladding himself in a frilly gown upon being sworn into the position earlier this year. In this solemn context, Vine’s revelations are particularly unbecoming.

Now the world knows that the “Ikea light fittings in [Vine and Gove’s] house wouldn’t take it” if the couple decided to get together for a night of passion — if you can bear it, the full article is here — can we ever look at the Lord Chancellor in the same way again?