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The night men in white coats carried me off after my wife sectioned me, by Heston Blumenthal: Read the chef and his wife's jaw-dropping account


When the men in white coats came to take away Heston Blumenthal, his wife could endure no more. She sobbed as she watched the man she loved being removed from their home in Provence.

Their French retreat is such a wondrous, peaceful place that it’s impossible to imagine that ten months ago Melanie was at the centre of a storm here – ‘a tornado that was sucking the energy out of Heston but also draining me’. His mind is a truly dazzling thing which, despite the medication he continues to take – ‘half a sleeping tablet, quetiapine and something I can’t remember’ – fizzes with ideas that touch on just about everything in the universe: how it feels; how it smells; what it looks like; how it tastes. When he opened the Fat Duck in Bray in 1995 he was dubbed a culinary Willy Wonka for his experimental approach to food, creating menus that appealed to all the senses, with dishes such as snail porridge and bacon and egg ice cream.

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'It was horrible for her but she saved my life': Heston Blumenthal tearfully reveals his wife Melanie was forced to have him sectioned during his bipolar battle