A former headteacher who starred in Channel 4’s Educating Yorkshire is embroiled in a family rift as his three children struggle to accept his relationship with a woman nearly 30 years his junior.
Jonny Mitchell, 53, became an unlikely national heartthrob when he appeared on the hit fly-on-the-wall documentary 12 years ago.
He was this week thrust back into the limelight after publicly revealing his romance with glamorous social media influencer Abi McMahon, 25 – and how he had been called a ‘paedophile’ a ‘groomer’ and a ‘dirty old man’.
Now the Daily Mail can reveal how he is also facing tension from his own children, who are said to be struggling with the vast age gap, especially because Ms McMahon is the same age as his eldest daughter.
A family friend admitted that it felt ‘weird’ when Mr Mitchell, who appeared in the first series of the show, revealed his new much-younger girlfriend.
They said: ‘When Jonny’s family first heard about Abi, the age gap was the first thing anyone noticed. It was a bit of an elephant in the room because it’s not what you expect.
‘Nearly 30 years is a lot, and it did raise eyebrows. Abi was only 21 or so, and his own children weren’t much younger.
‘So, yes, the initial reaction was shock. Jonny’s sisters have come to approve of Abi but it has caused friction with the kids.
Jonny Mitchell, 53, who starred in Channel 4’s Educating Yorkshire is embroiled in a family rift as his three children struggle to accept his relationship with a woman nearly 30 years his junior.
Former police officer Abi McMahon was 21 when she met Mr Mitchell in a bar
Jonny’s ex-wife Lisa Westerman with one of her three daughters – who have reportedly ‘struggled’ with their father’s age gap relationship
‘They obviously want their dad to be happy but they really have struggled to come to terms with it.’
Mr Mitchell, who won plaudits for his common sense approach to teaching while head of Thornhill Community Academy in West Yorks, was previously married to Lisa Westerman, 53.
The pair divorced in 2015, a year after separating.
He met Ms McMahon, a former police officer, on a night out in a Leeds bar in September 2021.
The couple have lived together in a rented cottage in Huddersfield, West Yorks, for the past two years.
Mr Mitchell’s sister Joanne, 49, meanwhile told the Daily Mail how she had accepted her brother’s relationship with Ms McMahon despite initially having reservations.
She said: ‘All I’ll say is that the age difference was a little bit weird at first. I’m 50 next year and she’s nearly the same age as my children.
‘But as soon as I met her we got on really, really well. Me and Abi are really close.
‘They’re just great together. They go well together. Despite the age difference, they’re the same. They’re very much on the same level.’
However, asked if her nieces felt similarly, Joanne responded bluntly: ‘No comment’.
In a candid newspaper interview in which Mr Mitchell said he had been branded a ‘paedophile, a groomer, a dirty old man and far worse’, he notably refused to talk about how his daughters felt about his partner.
He said he had no plans to have more children with Ms McMahon, who is originally from Nottingham.
‘I could not mentally or physically have children now,’ said Mr Mitchell. ‘I am too old. If Abi wanted any, we would have to part.’
A friend said that while Mr Mitchell’s three daughters age, 25, 20, and 18, have struggled to come to terms with the relationship, Mr Mitchell retains the backing of his wider family.
They said: ‘Of course there were reservations at the start. Nobody’s pretending otherwise.
‘But when Abi came into the picture properly, the doubts started to ease. She’s funny and intelligent and they’ve come to really like her.
Ms McMahon, who has 29,000 followers on TikTok, is on a journey to break down any stigma about age gap relationships and regularly posts videos about it
The couple have maintained their relationship is ‘completely normal’ and that they have ‘so much in common’, despite the significant age gap (Jonny Mitchell, 53, pictured with his girlfriend, Abs, 25)
‘It’s definitely not some midlife crisis or fling, which is what people might think. They’ve been together for a long time now and she’s living with him.
‘They’ve got a dog together which they dote on and they both seem really happy.
‘He’s had to put up with trolls saying awful things online – as has Abi.’
Mr Mitchell has spoken openly about the backlash to his relationship, which has been well-documented on social media by Ms McMahon.
He said: ‘It’s par for the course for people who hide behind computer screens and keyboards and it makes me feel pessimistic about how society is panning out.
‘I never thought I’d fall in love again let alone with a woman so much younger than me but you can’t legislate who you meet.’
Meanwhile, Ms McMahon said she had been accused of being a ‘gold-digger’ and ‘an embarrassment’.
‘The worst was one who told me to kill myself,’ she said. ‘People will think I must have daddy issues – I definitely don’t.
‘I want people to simply not judge others so quickly. I tend to answer them and that usually shuts them up!’
She told how she met Mr Mitchell after accidentally spilling a drink on him and was unaware of his previous fame on documentary Educating Yorkshire.
Ms McMahon, now a social media influencer, added: ‘I didn’t know who he was. We got chatting and he asked where my accent was from.
‘I liked him and thought he was handsome so we swapped numbers. For months we text and finally met up mid-2022. I bought him breakfast at Frankie and Benny’s in Chesterfield – so much for me chasing him for his money!’
Ms McMahon said of future marriage plans: ‘Never say never…and Jonny thinks the same’.
Two years after Educating Yorkshire ended in 2015, Mr Mitchell went on to take a role as headteacher at Co-op Academy in Leeds, where he stayed for a number of years.
He then became the headteacher of Netherwood Academy, in Barnsley, but left earlier this year.
