Gordon Ramsay made his name as a firebrand celebrity chef famed for his expletive-ridden kitchen meltdowns – but has been winning over new fans through an ‘unflinchingly honest’ insight into his ‘real’ life.

The six-part Netflix documentary series Being Gordon Ramsay highlights a softer, more vulnerable, side of the multi-millionaire restaurateur – as a devoted husband and father of six.

But to one viewer, at least, the slickly-produced portrayal has left a bitter taste.

Driven close to boiling point, Ramsay’s long-term former mistress Sarah Symonds, 56, told the Daily Mail: ‘The title of the docu-series ‘Being Gordon Ramsay’ is totally fake – just like him.

‘It’s misleading and disingenuous. A travesty in fact, as nothing about it was ‘Being Gordon’ at all.

‘It was a glossed over, rehabilitated, glow-up version of a bully, cheat, liar and serial philanderer.’

Sarah – who claims she has been left traumatised by the alleged affair and the fallout that followed – added: ‘If I read once more that this documentary is ‘unflinchingly honest’, I think I’ll scream.

‘I am trying to heal, and then this appears everywhere. It makes me so angry.’

Ramsay has long denied having had an affair.

Gordon Ramsay has partnered with Netflix for the six-part documentary series Being Gordon Ramsay (pictured at the London premiere on February 16)

Ramsay’s ex-mistress Sarah  Symonds, pictured, accuses him of whitewashing his past in his ‘completely misleading and fake’ new Netflix series

In the series, Ramsay, 59, describes wife Tana, 51, as the ‘foundation’ who stood alongside him as he built up his global restaurant empire and shot to worldwide TV fame during the course of their near 30-year marriage.

And he insisted that while he regretted that work commitments had taken him away from his young children as they were growing up they had always been the most important thing in his life.

But in a blistering attack, Sarah branded Ramsay ‘a bully, a liar and a cheat’.

Sarah accused Ramsay of carefully cultivating the image of a loving husband and father when she claims he was really living a double life ‘as a single man’ during the years she knew him as he shot to fame.

Sarah claimed that during their alleged seven-year affair, the multiple Michelin-star winning’s chef’s marriage was ‘a sham’.

She said: ‘Gordon always acted like a single man, a man about town.

‘He was always available and always at the same social venues late at night as me.

‘He had the swagger and confidence of a man with no responsibilities, and the persona of a man who certainly wasn’t rushing home.

In the series, Ramsay, describes wife Tana (pictured with son Oscar James) as the ‘foundation’ who stood alongside him as he built up his global restaurant empire

Sarah says she is now considering taking legal action against him claiming the toll of the alleged affair, and his repeated public denials, caused complex post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction issues and long-term damage to her mental health

‘In this instance you always take the married man’s lead, and he had a big neon sign above his head saying ‘available’.’

In reality at the time, Sarah claims, former nursery school teacher Tana, who had married Ramsay in 1996, was at home looking after their three eldest children including twins Holly and Jack who were born prematurely – with another on the way.

In the Netflix series, Tana spoke of the chaos of looking after four young children, largely on her own, as Ramsay built his career.

But Sarah, from Newport, south Wales, insisted he had little time for his young family and was more interested in ‘partying and socialising’ – often with his fellow celebrity chef friend Marcus Wareing and revelling in his new found fame.

She said he planned to leave Tana and set up a bachelor pad home with Wareing, who had worked for him.

Sarah said: ‘I used to feel quite sorry for him. 

‘It was well known he had newborns and yet it was obvious to all of us that he didn’t want to be at home, he wanted to be out living his life.

‘He seemed to feel quite trapped by it all, and I felt sorry for him.

The series features Holly’s then upcoming wedding to Olympic swimming champion Adam Peaty

Ramsay has long denied having had an affair, while Sarah has branded Ramsay ‘a bully, a liar and a cheat’

‘We used to talk about it a lot, especially when he said he was unhappily married and planning to leave Tana and move into a flat with Marcus Wareing. But then one wonders, why on earth he had so many kids, when clearly his mind was elsewhere.

‘If he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, commit to his responsibilities then really he had no business having them.

‘Truth of the matter was, he wanted to have his cake and eat it. Sadly I helped him do that. I wasn’t the only one.’

Sarah told how the ‘warning signs’ were there from the moment she met Ramsay at upmarket London night spot Chinawhite in October 2001.

Sarah claimed she was out with a group of friends including Princess Diana’s former lover James Hewitt when Ramsay – who had broken into TV two years earlier with his first major series Boiling Point – walked up to the table to talk to her and they exchanged telephone numbers.

She said: ‘Most happily married men, or at least the ones who care a jot what their wives may think, aren’t usually found drinking and socialising in the VIP section of London’s most public nightclub late on a Friday night.

‘When he came up to me to talk to me and my table, yes I was flattered. Before I knew it we had swapped numbers before parting ways at about 3am.’

The six-part Netflix documentary series Being Gordon Ramsay highlights a softer, more vulnerable, side of the multi-millionaire restaurateur – as a devoted husband and father of six (pictured with his family and Adam Peaty)

Being Gordon Ramsay follows the lead-up to his biggest restaurant venture to date, in one of London’s tallest buildings, 22 Bishopgate

Sarah claimed she frequently bumped into Ramsay and Wareing who would often end up with a group of friends going back to her flat in Marble Arch.

Before long, Sarah’s affair with Ramsay began and he began staying over.

During the course of time, she said their relationship would be conducted in London, Los Angeles and Dubai, with repeated meetings in hotels and private apartments.

Sarah insisted it reached the point where they would spend time together in public at restaurants and attend events including Ramsay’s restaurant openings – when Tana would sometimes also be there.

Sarah told how Ramsay confided in her how his relationship with his wife wasn’t working.

She said: ‘He told me that his marriage was in a bad way.’

Sarah claimed Ramsay was indiscreet about his home life and while he rarely criticised his wife directly, she said his comments were often ‘dismissive’ of her.

She said: ‘He never really bad-mouthed Tana.

During the course of time, Sarah said her relationship with Ramsay would be conducted in London, Los Angeles and Dubai, with repeated meetings in hotels and private apartments

Sarah claimed she frequently bumped into Ramsay and Wareing who would often end up with a group of friends going back to her flat in Marble Arch

‘He would say ‘She hasn’t got a bad bone in her body, how boring is that?’ and we would laugh.

‘I just put it down to the fact that she was a nursery school teacher so maybe she was a bit prim and proper.’

Sarah claimed Ramsay’s marriage and family life was useful for his image but he had ‘no regard for his wife’ and he was more interested in partying with his friend Wareing.

She said: ‘He said that it just looked good if he was married, but that he was his own man.

‘He said how he and Marcus were looking for their own flat together and that he would then leave her.

‘The two chefs talked excitedly, and at length, about that, in front of all of us at my flat, and how they had already been to see a few flats, the parties they would have, etc.

‘Gordon was super excited at the thought of breaking free.’

But she added that conflicted Ramsay felt trapped in the marriage.

As their relationship developed, Sarah said she was shocked after Hello! magazine featured a story of the couple with their twins ‘playing happy families’.

She said: ‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing

‘All so fake, one story for the general public but another actually being the truth.

‘I was p***** off at it to be honest, but he insisted the story was done before we had met and that it was all just PR and show.

‘Even if he wasn’t with me I would see him at the same bars or restaurants, always chatting to the same circle of friends.

‘Tana never seemed to phone him when he was with me either.’

Sarah told how, at one point, she moved to California but ‘reconnected’ with Ramsay who would travel over to visit the Beckhams while David was playing for LA Galaxy.

Sarah said: ‘He would say how he had to go to various waterparks or whatever with Tana and the kids and the Beckhams and how boring it was.’

Ramsay and daughter pictured arriving for her wedding to Adam Peaty at Bath Abbey in December 2025

Sarah claims, former nursery school teacher Tana, who had married Ramsay in 1996, was at home looking after their three eldest children including twins Holly and Jack who were born prematurely (pictured with daughter Tilly in 1998)

Ramsay has repeatedly denied her claims on one occasion describing them as ‘bull’.

And she says he publicly insulted her during a live cooking demonstration by calling her a ‘slapper’ and stating he would never cheat with someone like her.

She says she is now considering taking legal action against him claiming the toll of the alleged affair, and his repeated public denials, caused complex post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction issues and long-term damage to her mental health.

His denials also opened the floodgates to years of online abuse, she claims.

The documentary features Ramsay striving to be as supportive as he can to his six children – Megan, 27, Holly and Jack, 26, Tilly, 24, Oscar, six, and Jesse, two.

Meanwhile, as driven as ever, he launches into his ‘most ambitious project yet’ – opening up five restaurants in a prestigious skyscraper in the City.

And the busy lives of the Ramsays include organising Holly’s then upcoming wedding to Olympic swimming champion Adam Peaty.

In one scene Ramsay says: ‘Being away from home is tough – very tough. So I want that time to go as quickly as possible. It’s the little ones I miss. They get used to me and I get used to them.

The documentary features Ramsay finding it difficult being away from his six children – Megan, 27, Holly and Jack, 26, Tilly, 24, Oscar, six, and Jesse, two – as he launches his ‘most ambitious project yet’

‘We’ve just come off the back on an amazing summer so yes it is hard. And when Oscar asks ‘When are you back?’ I can’t say ‘four weeks time’ because he asks ‘How many sleeps is that?’ Man, that’s f****** painful.

‘I miss them terribly. You know, FaceTime is nice. But when I am on my own and it’s silent and I will see the pictures on my phone or there is a memory that comes up, that is when it hits home. That is when it is painful.’

Branding Ramsay’s musings ‘the fake sincerity of a narcissist’, Sarah said: ‘So nothing has really changed then. He is still away, Tana is still living in chaos, but with more kids to feed.’

Ramsay was contacted for comment.