From Kerry Katona’s shoe-phobia to Marnie Simpson’s bathroom rules – celebs reveal the biggest icks they get from men
DOES your lover give you the ick?
More than half of us have given partners the boot for weird behaviour, says a survey by dating site Seeking.
It also found that body odour is the No1 passion killer, while one in ten would dump a date for clapping as a plane lands safely.
Research for online shop Northerner says bad breath, smoking and poor manners are among the biggest turn-offs.
Yasmin Harisha and Kirsten Jones asked six celebs to share their top icks . . .
RHIAN SUGDEN
I ONCE dated this really cute guy I met in a bar. He was so good-looking and seemed like a real gent.
Then I noticed his left ear glowing like the biggest red flag I’ve ever seen.
We spent our first date in a local pub and it’s all I could think about. Conversation dried up as my eyes kept drifting towards his glowing beacon.
It was so red I thought it might explode off the side of his face.
I felt like Austin Powers when he can’t stop himself from shouting “mole” in that man’s face.
I was unable to drag my eyes away from his glaringly obvious feature and even found myself leaning around the stack of table menus to get a better look.
Then I stupidly agreed to dinner and even went on to meet him for two more dates. Why? I have no idea.
Each night I went home and thought about laying beside that red hot ear in bed – it made me shudder.
Maybe I was being too judgemental. But it was a nightmare gift that kept on giving and I couldn’t see past it.
He turned out to be a shallow and self-righteous narcissist anyway and I was off the hook. People say a burning left ear means you’re about to get bad news. Sorry mate, it’s over.
I never saw him again.
LIZZIE CUNDY
CALL me shallow, but I can’t stand men who order spag bol on a date.
I’ve always been sensitive to noise, and a recent date sent me over the edge.
I met this guy in a bar and we hit it off. He was handsome, funny and had a great job – the whole package – so I agreed to have dinner with him.
But then our dream date spiralled into a nightmare when he went and ordered spaghetti bolognese.
He ate so noisily and sounded like a washing machine on a spin cycle.
The sound of his slapping and slurping filled this cute Italian restaurant. It felt like everyone was watching us.
At one point, I thought he was going to lick the plate. Even the waiter came over and commented: “You’re enjoying that, aren’t you?”
I sat there gaping at this grown man with orange sauce all over his face. I felt like a toddler’s mum as I used a napkin to dab at his dirty mouth and shuddered at the thought of my life with him.
Imagine the chaos he would make with a bowl of cornflakes!
I completely ghosted him after that. My skin still crawls thinking about that awful noise.
My advice: Avoid messy eaters like the plague and never date a man who wears dirty shoes. They’ll be dirty in many other places.
KERRY KATONA
AFTER I split up with [second husband] Mark Croft in 2011, I dated a guy who only wore flip flops.
It gave me the shivers seeing his hairy toes out in all weathers. Who does that?
All my friends called him the flip flop man and we stopped dating sharpish.
My fiancé, Ryan [Mahoney], is sandal-free, but he spends so much time in front of the mirror. I’ve convinced myself he’s got a twin.
Thank God we’ve got five bathrooms – I end up waiting hours for him to pick and preen before we can leave the house.
While I sit downstairs in my dressing gown eating a bacon sandwich, he’ll shower twice and do who knows what to his hair with his eyes ogling into the mirror.
It’s not right that our roles are reversed and it’s a massive turn-off.
There’s one more massive turn-off and that’s the way he runs.
On our last day trip, to Ashdown Forest in Sussex, my son Max challenged Ryan to a race.
He’s a personal trainer, so I did not expect what happened next. Ryan sped across the grass almost horizontally with his eyes staring straight into the floor.
I was so embarrassed I shot around to check no one was watching.
I made him swear he’d never run in front of me again, or there’ll be trouble.
DANIELLE LLOYD
CALL me crazy, but I can’t stand the smell of onions. I absolutely hate them and my husband Michael knows it.
I’ll feel calm and cosy on the sofa watching TV when suddenly the pungent scent invades my nostrils and makes my stomach churn.
The sound of the knife butchering each layer, the slippery slices sizzling in the frying pan . . . it brings tears to my eyes.
Onions make me feel so sick I have to escape to our bedroom two floors up, or just flee the house entirely.
Michael loves them so much he cooks them almost every day. He’ll try to kiss me after eating them. He’s lucky I’m not sick in his mouth.
I’ve morphed into a sniffer dog on high alert. I’ll smell them on him when he walks through the door.
He’s now banned from smooching until he’s brushed his teeth. Sometimes the smell is so bad I’ll banish him to the bathroom for a full shower and hair wash.
He thinks I’m being ridiculous but my son Harry’s the same, maybe worse. Just the sight of an onion makes him run a mile.
Despite my enormous ick, Michael will order onion-filled McDonald’s cheeseburgers and tuck into endless bags of cheese and onion crisps.
I love him so much but, please God, stop.
KIM WOODBURN
MY husband shaves daily over the sink. I’m all right with that, but it’s what happens afterwards that makes my skin crawl.
He cleans his teeth, washes his hands and doesn’t run it down the plughole.
When I visit the bathroom, I’m met with a pool of hairs, gooey soap and toothpaste spread over the entire sink. It makes me want to vomit.
I’ll quickly take a piece of toilet paper and wipe it all down. Why can’t he do that?
I ask why he can’t shave in the shower. But he doesn’t want to.
It’s a bowl of contention, this gross sink.
Now it’s hair off his face but next it’ll be his pubic hair. I’m not going to talk about what he does with that.
We got married in 1979 and I’ve suffered terribly. He’s put years on me – I’m only 30 and I look 80! I say, “Peter, dear, you need to stop”, but his excuse is that he has other good habits, like cleaning the loo. I think he’s making a monkey out of me, to be perfectly honest.
Why, when you’re courting, do they never belch, pick their feet or leave puddles of hair in your sink? How does this kick in when you’re married?
The other thing he does is stick two clumps of tissue up his nostrils when he’s full of cold to avoid the effort of blowing his nose.
It makes me feel sick.
And the coughing. Oh, I can’t stand it. We’ll be right at the end of a gripping series and the main character will deliver their bombshell line. Right on cue, he’ll cough, splutter and bark like a dog.
Could I watch the last episode of Happy Valley in peace? Could I heck!
I must be a glutton for punishment, but I wouldn’t part with him for the world.
MARNIE SIMPSON
YEARS ago, I had an ex-boyfriend who would disappear for what seemed like hours at a time.
A few months into our relationship we’d be chilling on the sofa and I’d notice him pick up a newspaper from the coffee table and saunter out of the lounge.
Half an hour later he’d re-emerge with the same paper under his arm. He’d read it cover to cover, but where?
One day I got so bored of waiting for him that I just had to investigate.
I found the toilet locked so I pressed my ear against the door. Every few minutes, tearing through the silence, was the crinkling sound of a turning page.
As if he was reading on the toilet. First I thought of his dirty fingers all over MY newspaper. There’s no way I’d read it after that, it made my skin crawl.
Then there was the awful smell that would cling to it – if he was doing what I thought he was doing.
What if I needed a wee? He didn’t spare a thought for me.
And we were ALWAYS late to meet our friends because he was too busy scanning the sports pages while doing a number two.
He said it was his “quiet time” to himself.
Well, thanks a lot from your loving ex-girlfriend. There’s a reason you go to the toilet – and it’s not to read.