Since catapulting to fame on BBC show The Apprentice back in 2017, Thomas Skinner has portrayed himself in public as a successful ‘cheeky chappie’ businessman. A lovable Essex boy. A generous family man.
But, today, that carefully-curated image lies in tatters, for his former lover Amy-Lucy O’Rourke, 35, has now revealed he lied to her and ‘gaslit’ her after she discovered his marriage to wife Sinead was not the sham he’d told her it was.
Amy-Lucy, an aesthetician and mother of one, claims she began an affair with Skinner in the summer of 2022, just weeks after his wedding in May.
At that point he told her the marriage was merely one of convenience, she says. Yet in July that year, Amy-Lucy realised that was a lie – so ended their affair.
She now claims Skinner, 34, who makes his debut on BBC hit show Strictly this Saturday, took this badly and turned up at her door demanding she speak to him.
In highly unpleasant footage from her Ring doorbell, Skinner can be seen outside for a minute and a half, despite Amy-Lucy making it clear she doesn’t want to talk. He also appears to try to push his way into her property, but she stops him.
Dramatically, she then leaves the doorstep of her house near Brentwood, Essex, to smash the windscreen of his Mercedes 4×4, which is parked outside.
Amy-Lucy Rourke, an aesthetician and mother of one, claims she began an affair with Thomas Skinner in the summer of 2022, just weeks after his wedding in May
The Daily Mail can also reveal that Skinner sent her a barrage of text messages after she ended the relationship, calling her a ‘crazy lady’ and ‘insane’.
In footage given to me by Amy-Lucy, Skinner is first seen standing on her doorstep making hand gestures at the camera as she refuses to answer the door.
He then shouts at an upstairs window, again demanding she open the door.
Amy-Lucy shouts back, ‘Leave me alone and go away,’ yet he keeps banging the knocker.
She then opens the door and tells him her son is asleep.
On Monday, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Amy-Lucy told how she’d had a months-long affair with Skinner.
She told of her anger and her heartbreak at how he has since portrayed their relationship, claiming father-of-three Skinner told her he was in love with her and unhappy with wife Sinead.
In highly unpleasant footage from her Ring doorbell, Skinner can be seen outside for a minute and a half, despite Amy-Lucy making it clear she doesn’t want to talk
Amy-Lucy said: ‘Thomas told me I was the love of his life and sold me an absolute dream.
‘He told me that he was in a loveless relationship of convenience.’
Indeed, Amy-Lucy said they were often out in public together and acted like a couple besotted with one another.
In a separate interview with another newspaper, meanwhile, Skinner claimed their relationship was nothing but a meaningless ‘two-week fling’.
In an attempt to downplay the romance, he told The Sun on Sunday: ‘It was the one time, it was a mistake. I woke up feeling absolutely terrible about it.
‘I felt so guilty, I told my wife. I let her down in that brief moment of madness where I wasn’t thinking, where I didn’t appreciate what I had.’
However, today, Amy-Lucy insists he didn’t tell his wife – she did.
She tells the Mail: ‘It makes me really angry that his narrative is that he told her.
‘He did not tell her. I can’t believe he’s trying to make out that he did the honest thing. He did not, he tried to keep the lie up for weeks and was torturing me emotionally.
‘He was playing me and Sinead off against each other. Telling me one thing, telling her another.’
Six weeks after Skinner married Sinead (pictured together), he told Amy-Lucy that he loved her in a late-night text message. He also told her: ‘Good night, beautiful’
Skinner sent Amy-Lucy a barrage of text messages after she ended the relationship, calling her a ‘crazy lady’ and ‘insane’
In fact, she says, on July 3 2022, six weeks after Skinner married Sinead, he told Amy-Lucy that he loved her in a late-night text message. He also told her: ‘Good night, beautiful.’
Skinner’s claim that it was a one-off is also undermined by other video clips Amy-Lucy has of the pair. In one, she is sitting in a sunny pub garden while he shows off a rose he has made for her out of a white napkin. Amy-Lucy says: ‘Look, Thomas made me a really cute rose.’
In another video he jokes that he feels ‘kidnapped’ by her.
‘Thomas would cook for me and took my car to get it fixed like a boyfriend,’ says Amy-Lucy. ‘He made me believe everything was perfect and that we were meant to be, but he’s a liar and a cheat.
‘He is definitely not what he portrays himself to be on social media.’
