12:27pm Friday 22nd February 2008
By Harry Hawkins
SARAH SYMONDS freely admits that she was a mistress to a number of married lovers.
But now, a book, titled "Having an Affair? A Handbook for the Other Woman", based on her experiences is among the best-sellers in the USA - and it has led to the Newport woman meeting the queen of the chat show, Oprah Winfrey.
The 38-year-old who has been romantically linked with a top US celebrity and a leading British politician, says her book, Having an Affair, is not a kiss-and-tell.
Instead, she says it is a guide helping women in the same situation survive the emotional roller-coaster of having a relationship with a married man.
"It started off as a diary of an affair and it just grew and grew," the former Bassaleg School pupil who has just returned to her home city from Los Angeles said.
"It's not a name and shame - and that was never my intention."
Born in Newport and growing up in Beechwood, Miss Symonds worked at a travel agent on Charles Street before jetting across the globe.
She said: "I was 22 and I wanted to see the world.
"I got a job in the Middle East with Sheraton Hotel and I was thrust into this lifestyle surrounded by the rich and glamorous.
"It was a huge change to go from Newport to Abu Dhabi."
And it was during her time abroad that she first started to strike up relationships with married men.
Whilst she travelled, her affairs increased, her jetset lifestyle took off, and the book now catalogues her experiences.
"I've lost count of the men in the book," she said.
Now, she refuses to reveal the number of affairs she has had. And when asked if she had embarked on the affairs because of her youth or naivety, she said: "No, it was a great lifestyle. I was pushed into that fast lane."
And in a chapter in her book entitled 'Single, Female and Desperate? Why Single Women Opt to Date Married Men', she writes: "These days, if you're a woman in your mid-thirties and upward, and still single (although I prefer to call it unmarried because single implies that you're waiting to get married), people automatically seem to feel sorry for you..."
Many married women would condemn her lifestyle.
But Miss Symonds, who has never been married, brushed off concerns about the effect her actions may have had on the wives of her lovers.
She said: "An affair is about three people.."
And she said there were "plenty" of books on the market for wives whose husbands stray.
The book led to an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show.
She said: "I got on Oprah by writing lots of letters, telling her about my book.
"I spoke to her after for about 15 minutes. I thought she was really genuine."
Now back in Newport, Miss Symonds is set to launch the book in the UK - with a possible TV series based on it also being mooted.
Chapters include Surviving Christmas as a Mistress, My Wife Doesn't Understand Me, and How and Why Married Men Stray.
Her work for a dating agency now takes her between London, LA and Canada.
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