The ex-wife of nineties Gladiators legend Jet has revealed how their fairytale marriage was destroyed by a string of explosive rows in which she claims to have been repeatedly taunted, threatened and even physically attacked.
Teacher Zoe Gilbert wed Jet – real name Diane Youdale – after she proposed just four months into a whirlwind romance which began when they met in a Tesco car park.
But their romantic marriage soured within weeks – and MailOnline revealed last month how Youdale, 54, had admitted attacking Zoe, claiming she had ‘snapped’ after she was ‘pushed over the edge.’
Police were called to the home they had shared in Stockton-on Tees, County Durham, and Diane was spoken to, though not arrested – but the flare up was to prove the final straw for the couple who soon afterwards separated permanently.
Now Zoe, 50, has broken her silence to make a series of sensational claims about Diane – telling how the marriage was a ‘living nightmare’ which soon turned violent with the gameshow pin-up repeatedly attacking her while drunk, pushing her downstairs and opening a door in her face and warning: ‘I will rip you limb from limb.’
The abuse, she says, was so vile she was routinely called names like ‘fat little c*** of a dwarf’.
Diane meanwhile has bitterly denied the claims against her – saying that she is teetotal, and has a back condition that makes her too frail to be violent. And she made the counter accusation that her ex-wife Zoe was herself frequently drunk and had invented her claims.
In support of her version of events Zoe took photographs of injuries which she has shared with MailOnline.
Teacher Zoe Gilbert (right) wed Jet – real name Diane Youdale (left) – after she proposed just four months into a whirlwind romance which began when they met in a Tesco car park
Zoe said that when she showed the photographs of her injuries to her horrified family they feared that 4ft 9in Zoe might be at risk if she didn’t end the relationship
Zoe claims one particularly toxic row resulted in her plunging down the stairs at home and slamming her head into the wall at the bottom so hard it broke the plaster (Pictured: Photos of Zoe’s injuries that she accused Diane of causing)
Zoe said: ‘She is bigger and stronger than me and she scared me during these incidents. I told my family about them and they were really worried’
Zoe took a photo of a cut that she says was caused by her former wife, Diane
Zoe said: ‘I suffered numerous assaults from Diane, she’s still a strong and fit woman and I was terrified of her by the time our marriage came to an end.’
She said that when she showed her photographs to her horrified family they feared that 4ft 9in Zoe might be at risk if she didn’t end the relationship.
Zoe claims one particularly toxic row resulted in her plunging down the stairs at home and slamming her head into the wall at the bottom so hard it broke the plaster.
She also alleged that she suffered a cut above the eye after being struck by a door opened by Diane and was also forcefully pushed into a wall by her.
The marriage finally ended in February last year when a final drunken argument suddenly turned sinister and Zoe was forced to run from the marital home to seek help from a neighbour, she says.
She told MailOnline how Diane screamed: ‘I will rip you limb from limb, I will kill you.’
Diane has previously admitted she was taken away by the police that night, saying: ‘She (Zoe) fell over the back of the sofa. I pressed on her chest three times firmly and I said, ‘stop this now.’ I can’t remember what happened then. The next thing I knew I was being led out by the police.’
Zoe tells a very different version of events.
Choking back tears at times as she recalled painful memories from a marriage that effectively lasted only seven months, she said: ‘The ironic thing is that on that night, our final night living under the same roof, Diane didn’t lay hands on me, but she had several times before.
‘On that night I didn’t fall over the back of the sofa. How can anyone fall over the back of the sofa unless they’re sitting on top of it? Which I obviously wasn’t.
‘She had been drinking heavily and had flown into a rage, which was quite common, but this time I was really scared.
‘I was standing on the porch, too frightened to go near her, when she told me: ‘I am going to rip you limb from limb, I will kill you.’
Zoe says Diane threatened to kill her and was then arrested by police before spending a night in the sells
The marriage finally ended in February last year when a final drunken argument suddenly turned sinister and Zoe was forced to run from the marital home to seek help from a neighbour, she says
‘It was terrifying and I knew that if I didn’t get out of the house I was in serious danger, I had no choice but to go outside and ask for help. I was shouting ‘help, please, somebody help’ and thankfully my neighbour heard me.
‘He called the police and Diane was taken away and kept in the cells. She was only released to come back to the house and collect her things.
‘I loved her, we had some great times together and I wanted our marriage – my first – to work, but I knew at that point it was over, there was no coming back from it.’
She added: ‘I was lied to and gaslighted by Diane to such an extent that I didn’t know any more what was real, it was like living with a stranger and I wonder now if I really knew her at all.’
Zoe and Diane met in the car park of their local Tesco superstore in Stockton in 2023 and began chatting to each other, with Zoe plucking up the courage to ask her on a date.
In the aftermath of the bitter split, Diane has previously now claimed that Zoe had staged their ‘meet cute’ moment and likened it to being pursued by a ‘wolf.’
She had told MailOnline: ‘Our meeting wasn’t by chance… the research had been done. She knew my past relationships. It was creepy and weird. This had been contrived from the beginning by her, she knew where I would be in the supermarket and what time. I was naïve as hell.’
Responding to this, Zoe said this week: ‘It was really hurtful to read what she said. How could I research a thing like that, it was exactly what it seemed, a chance meeting and it was Diane who started the conversation by asking my name.
‘It was clear there was some attraction there and I ended up asking her on a date. I can’t believe she’s now twisted that into something so unpleasant, it’s just not true.’
Their relationship moved at lightning pace, with the pair marrying in July 2023, a matter of weeks after they met.
But Zoe says that even before they tied the knot there were worrying signs that the relationship would be tempestuous.
She said: ‘Diane has claimed that our relationship drove her into drinking more but she had a problem with alcohol before. She would drink morning, noon and night and spent the day drinking while I was out at work.
The couple got married in a whirlwind romance and were engaged after just four months of dating
Diane became famous after appearing on ITV’s Gladiators game show
‘Before we even married there were rows. In one incident, after drinking, there was a row and Dianne pulled a door open forcefully and it hit me in the face and caused a cut above my eye.
‘I was so shocked by what had happened that I took a photograph to document it, I felt that I needed to do that.
‘She is bigger and stronger than me and she scared me during these incidents. I told my family about them and they were really worried.
‘In one incident she pushed me down the stairs and I went all the way down and hit the wall at the bottom so hard my head went through the plaster.
‘I was covered in bruises and shocked and distressed but I didn’t seek medical treatment. I loved Diane and I knew getting help would be the end.
‘But my family were so worried they took photographs of my cuts and bruises and told me ‘we’re worried that one day we’ll get a call saying you’re not here any more.’ They feared I’d be seriously hurt.’
Diane has previously accused Zoe of obsessive jealousy, which she had said ruined their marriage.
But Zoe responded by saying she was disproportionately punished by her former wife for raising legitimate questions about her past.
The first doubts arose following an interview given by Sonia Strong, an ex Miss England contestant who said she’d been in a seven year relationship with the former Gladiator.
Zoe said: ‘This was an astonishing thing to discover. Diane had told me that Sinoa had been her ‘creative partner’ and that nothing happened between them and suddenly I’m reading in black and what that they were in a seven-year relationship.
‘Another former partner also told her story, which differed drastically from what I had been told about Diane.
‘I suddenly felt as though I was living with someone I didn’t really know but she lied and gaslighted me until I couldn’t tell her truth from fiction, it was a horrible way to live.
‘When I asked questions it caused these terrible arguments, made worse by alcohol and it was obvious the relationship was falling apart.
‘As my wife, she called me the worst names I’ve ever heard anyone call another person. She called me a ‘fat little c*** of a dwarf’ and other horrendous things.
‘When our relationship finally ended I went into counselling – I was traumatised
‘And I’m now so glad to be out of it.’
The pair finally split in February 2024 and officially divorced in July of that year, just 12 months after their supermarket meeting.
Diane Youdale had previously told MailOnline: ‘I felt suicidal. She pushed me to the limit to suddenly make me the baddie, which is as clear as day now. She took pictures of her injuries, none of which I inflicted.
When we put Zoe’s account of their marriage to her this week, Diane responded in writing.
Diane wrote: ‘I didn’t do any of them! [the things Zoe described in her interview]’
She continued: ‘I would only lay hands on someone in rage if they were attacking a minor or an animal or in self-defence and I was never in self-defence around her.
‘She has claimed I picked her up at the top of the stairs and threw her down but if anything, I have a disc rupture.’
Diane insisted: ‘She gets very drunk (I’m a non drinker now thankfully!) being around people who do put me off.
Diane was accused of heavy drinking and vicious attacks by her former partner
‘I couldn’t lift anything with my disc issue and I don’t even recall being present for what she alleged sadly.
‘This confirms my suspicions on her mental health. Accusing me of sleeping with anyone and everyone! Disgusting names and hurtful.
‘We’ve kept all her messages and I’m looking at action.
‘Zoe was initially lovely, so much so I asked her to be with me for life but no one can put up with that amount of mental nagging/bullying. I wouldn’t have treated anyone like that.
‘I was heartbroken but walked and did the right thing. ‘
