A Welsh former model who styles herself on a 1950s housewife has set out her exacting list of demands for a prospective husband. Claire Grey, from Swansea, said she walks out on dates if they expect her to buy so much as a drink while she ended a relationship because her boyfriend forgot to hold her hand as they crossed a road.
The 39-year-old psychotherapist and former model, who wears prim 1950s-style dresses and twinsets from her gran, said: “I’m like a 1950s housewife – I believe the man should work and the woman should look after the home. “They should have dinner on the table for their man and make sure household chores are taken care of.”
The flip side is that Claire won’t tolerate a man who doesn’t live up to her high standards and she also comes with a list of demands of her own. Claire expects to be treated “like a lady” and courted like a character from Downton Abbey or Bridgerton, reports the Mirror. She said: “A man must get out and knock on my door for a date. He must open the car door for me – not just on a first date but always. He should always pay for the date. I actually cringe when I see women going up to a bar to pay. It is not the woman’s place and it is embarrassing.
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“He must not swear – or if he does, he must apologise. He must drive most of the time and always put petrol in my car – I shouldn’t have to get my own petrol. I expect flowers and romantic gestures. I should be made to feel special. As the relationship progresses, if heading towards marriage and kids, he should know that I will not be working once kids come along.”
Claire – crowned Mrs Wales in the over-30s category last year – also expects her man to hold her hand when crossing the road. She says she recently dumped an ex-professional footballer after two months for failing to do just that during a romantic trip to Paris.
“He spent a fortune on me,” she says. “But he forgot to hold my hand and I refused to sit next to him on the plane. I said: ‘That’s it’. He couldn’t believe it and told me I was harder work than a WAG.”
But Claire insists chivalry is more important than money and said: “I would rather a man take me to McDonald’s and pay for me than take me to a plush restaurant and expect us to split the bill.” She often tests men on dates by asking if she should get the next round in. If they say yes she leaves. “I want them to be mortified that I would buy them a drink,” she said.
That’s if they get to the date stage at all as she often rules men out on dating apps for having kids while unmarried. Claire also has strict rules around intimacy and reprimands pals for one-night stands.
She won’t have sex with a man in the first six months – and only when a “proposal is imminent”. Claire goes on: “I never kiss on the first date. It would take at least five or six dates for me to consider it. I’m so anti-feminist. Women these days are easy and will sleep with men on the first date. Then men start expecting that – it makes it hard for people like me.”
Claire said at first men love her attentive ways. “They think ‘Great!’ and fall in love with me quickly. But once they realise they have to uphold their end of the bargain and can’t live up to the ideal of a 1950s man they fall out of love just as fast.”
Claire admits this can make it tough to find a lasting relationship. She added: “My longest was five years. I can’t believe I stayed for so long with no promise of marriage. My standards are much higher now.
“My dad is a true gent, a real romantic, and gives Mum flowers and writes her poetry. Mum was a stay-at-home housewife. That’s the relationship I want. I know my views are prehistoric and aren’t very popular but I am desperate to find love. I just want a good, old-fashioned man to settle down and grow old with.”
