http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/article1767028.eceHE’S the tyrannical TV chef whose foul language leaves fellow celebrities cowering in the kitchen.
Gordon Ramsay’s culinary brilliance has won him Michelin awards while his cutting put-downs have made him an on-screen sensation both here and across the Pond.
But the 41-year-old dad-of-four has had to overcome great adversity to get where he is today.
Along with his sisters and brother, Gordon was brought up on tough council estates where their father, also called Gordon, would abuse them.
The monster — who died an alcoholic in 1997 aged 53 — even threatened to kill the children and Gordon’s mum Helen.
Today, Gordon has shaken off his troubled past to become one of the most fearsome — and admired — personalities on TV.
But despite his success, the star’s wife Tana still feels a constant need to act as Gordon’s rock.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Tana says: “It has definitely made me more protective over Gordon. I want him to have a sense of security and strength behind him. My role is to support him.”
Gordon and 34-year-old Tana recently hosted a special dinner to raise money for domestic violence charity Women’s Aid.
Domestic violence claims the lives of two women every week in the UK — and more than one in four will be a victim of it. At least 750,000 children witness this abuse every year.
Gordon pulled through his tough early life and has raised a happy family with Tana, complete with four children — Megan, ten, twins Jack and Holly, eight, and six-year-old Matilda.
Tana reveals: “We have a great home life but that’s because Gordon’s experience has made us very insular as a family unit. But that’s no bad thing.
“If Gordon is away, I make sure he can contact me wherever I am so he has that security of being able to check in when he wants.
“That sense of feeling safe is very important to him because he never had it growing it up.”
Tana had a very different upbringing to her husband.
While Gordon moved from one sink estate to the next, suffering at the hands of his father, she and her siblings had an idyllic childhood growing up on a Kent farm.
Despite their contrasting backgrounds, Tana and Gordon proved a perfect match and married in 1996.
For the first two years of married life, Tana desperately tried to get pregnant before discovering she had polycystic ovaries, which makes it difficult to conceive.
Gordon also found out he had a low sperm count after years spent cooking close to a hot stove.
The couple decided to embark on gruelling IVF treatment.
Tana explains: “There’s a two-week wait when you have the embryos put in and you wait to know whether they have taken or not. It’s such a long two weeks.
“Every time I lifted a shopping bag that that was too heavy, I kept thinking, ‘I’ve just lost the baby’.
“I didn’t even have the bath or shower too hot. I was paranoid.”
Eventually Tana fell pregnant on the third IVF attempt with daughter Megan, who was born in 1998.
Eleven months later, after another course of IVF, she fell pregnant again with twins.
Jack and Holly were born six weeks prematurely on New Year’s Day 2000 and Matilda, who was conceived naturally, was born in 2002.
Tana says: “We were delighted because we were told it would never happen naturally.”
Tana is fiercely loyal to Gordon but admits she does sometimes clash with her explosive husband.
One such time came when Gordon wanted to discuss their experience of IVF in an interview but she was set against it.
She says: “I was hell-bent on saying ‘No’. I said, ‘I don’t want to talk about it. It’s really private’.
“But Gordon said, ‘I think that’s selfish. We clung on to the success stories and now you have four amazing kids and you say you don’t want to talk about it.’
“It took two days of disagreeing before I thought, ‘He’s right, we should’. I don’t feel at all embarrassed about having done it.”
Tana insists that Gordon — who has made no secret of his reluctance to change nappies — is a natural dad.
He has said he would not mind another child but Tana simply smiles: “Never say never!”
Gordon, who has earned 12 Michelin stars, usually leaves the house early for work and does not return until midnight, so bringing up the kids is largely down to Tana.
She confesses: “Out of the two, I am the nagging bag. I do the discipline but Gordon is always good at backing me up.”
Tana has a regimented weekday routine for her children.
She says: “They are not allowed sweets and cakes during the week and they are not allowed to watch TV either. But it makes them appreciate their weekends all the more.”
The former nursery teacher has forged her own successful career with two bestselling cookery books and a third, Home Made, just out.
But when her eldest daughter, Megan, was struck down with appendicitis Tana decided to scale back her commitments.
The couple also make a big effort to enjoy intimate time together, preferring cosy nights in to going out on the town.
Tana reveals: “When we’ve had a bit to drink, Gordon rustles up beans and egg on toast. To me, that’s romantic.”
She insists there is no competition between her and Gordon when it comes to cooking at home.
And she adds: “I’m not a trained chef. I am a domestic cook who does home cooking.
“Gordon finds it nerve-racking when he watches me with a knife in my hand. My chopping skills leave a lot to be desired!”
Gordon got right behind Tana when she was offered the chance to bring out her first book — even when it outsold his autobiography, Humble Pie.
Tana says: “There was an article in the paper about it and that night I went to bed and he’d put the cutting on my pillow saying, ‘Can’t believe it, well done’.”
Despite her busy lifestyle, Tana still finds time to do a 5km run three times a week.
She says: “For the past six years Gordon and I have done the London Marathon. It’s addictive.”
A fervent supporter of the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Tana is backing their Pink Your Party campaign this month.
She says: “I am incredibly fortunate that I have no direct experience of breast cancer myself, but I’m not blasé and I’m vigilant.”
In order to raise funds, Tana is holding her own pink-themed party, as part of the charity’s latest campaign, for a group of girlfriends.
She says of the disease: “There are three mums at the children’s schools who have it. They are in their early 40s and it’s terrifying.
“They are fit, and looking at them you wouldn’t have a clue. I always wonder how I would cope if it was me. But they are so strong and getting on with their lives.
“It has taught me not to take life for granted and to enjoy every day.”
