British chef who ghosted wife and kids finally breaks silence

A British chef who abandoned his young family only to be tracked down by internet sleuths has finally got in touch with his estranged wife.

Charles "Charlie" Withers, a London-born restaurateur, became the subject of an intense online manhunt after his jilted partner Ashley McGuire posted about his “ghosting” on Facebook.

McGuire wrote on the ‘Are we dating the same guy’ group: “Last year, when I was pregnant with our youngest baby, [Withers] decided being a husband and a dad wasn’t the lifestyle he wanted any more and he ghosted – like gone without a trace.”

Confirming that she wasn’t seeking a reconciliation with the 30-year-old, she added: “Divorcing someone who is completely unreached is really tough and drawn out, so I’m trying to track him down to get his signature on a few papers so I can finally close this chapter and move on with my life.”

It took members of the social media group less than 16 hours to unearth an address and phone number for the father-of-two, who is understood to be living in Texas – a 30-hour drive from the Massachusetts home he had shared with McGuire.

From left: McGuire and Withers on their wedding day; her desperate Facebook plea(Ashley McGuire/Facebook)

In the wake of the development, which swiftly went viral across a number of different platforms, the mother-of-four (she has two kids from a previous relationship), confirmed her disgraced ex had been in touch.

Speaking to Boston radio station JAM’N 94.5 on Monday (8 April), McGuire said he had sent her a very to-the-point text the previous night.

“He reached out to me and said he would be happy to talk to me, but asked for me to take down his employer's information because it was a privacy risk or security risk or something for them,” she recalled, before adding that she hadn’t even posted their details, merely mentioned the name in one of her comments.

Her interviewer asked: “Was there aggression in the text message?”, to which McGuire responded that he had simply written: “Hey, it's Charles, I'm happy to talk to you,” as though he hadn’t been gone for the past year.

McGuire then confirmed that “the last time he saw the kids was last April,” and that she then saw him in July or August, but then he “dipped after that”.

“And that's kind of where things got super messy,” she added.

The radio host, who has known McGuire for some time, insisted that her pal had been very diplomatic throughout this whole debacle, adding: “Because Ashley and I are actually friends and I know all the details, to say you're being graceful is an understatement.”

McGuire agreed, stressing: “My intention was to not bash him. I feel like he could easily be the most hated man in the world.”

She went on: “I left a lot of details. I was very graceful, very cautious. My goal was not to disrupt his whole life, I just want to have the store closed and just move on.

“I don't want any ties, I don't want any connections, I just want the next chapter of my life to start.”

Nevertheless, she admitted that she’d been messaged by a number of women, telling her that she’d matched with Withers on dating apps, which was “painful” and “crazy to her”.

“At the end of the day, this is somebody, I married [...] I loved this man with my entire everything,” she said.

McGuire also admitted that not all of the thousands of messages she’d received had been helpful or supportive, and that many strangers seemed to blame her for the breakdown of their relationship, while others accused her of attention seeking.

“At the end of the day, I'm a single mum of four,” she pointed out. “I had two kids prior to meeting him, and we planned to have these children together [...] And for him to just ‘poof’ – all of that responsibility comes down on me, all of that comes back on me.

“So people that are like, ‘She's looking for money, she wants publicity,’ [I feel like] if you can take these girls on Bumble out on dates, you can send a box of diapers, you can provide – throw some money down towards childcare.”

The mum-of-four said her ex needed to face his responsibilities and help provide for his kids(@ashleysnatched/Instagram)

Lamenting the situation, McGuire acknowledged that she was not alone.

“There are literally hundreds of girls out there – probably thousands of girls out there – that are in the same boat, and we hold it down at least to the best of our ability.,” she said.

“And I think that's the part of this, that if you want to be a deadbeat, if you don't want to meet your kids [...] at least own up to that.

“Don't just take off and start this whole new life and not close the door and handle your responsibilities back at home first.”

On Wednesday morning (10 April), TMZreported that McGuire had informed the gossip site that, now that she had Withers' new address, she would be serving him with divorce papers "as soon as possible" and would be seeking full custody of their children.

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