Britain’s freakiest wives appear on new TV show

A woman who is so scared of dying that she thinks a spicy curry will kill her has spoken out in a new TV documentary.

British TV show Help! I've Got A High Maintenance Wife lifts the lid on four women who are driving their husbands to despair with their demanding behaviour.

Karen Armstrong, of Carlisle, would visit her doctor up to five times a week because she was convinced she was going to die.

Her obsession has put a huge strain on her relationship with husband Steve.

The 47-year-old even thinks certain foods - like mushrooms and curry - will kill her.

Mrs Armstrong said: "I have morbid thoughts about death and dying. Any minor ache or pain is a sign of something serious."

Despite being physically fit, she spends every day fearing she is dying.

Her long-suffering husband, 42, said: "If she has a chest pain she thinks she's having a heart attack."

She added: "I stopped going to wedding receptions or parties or the cinema because of the flashing lights because they give me migraines and I think: 'Ooh I've got a brain haemorrhage'.

"I feel sorry for Steve sometimes. I don't want to develop more and more things I want it to stop."

The documentary also profiles WAG wannabe Nicola McLean, who would rather sleep in her make-up than let boyfriend Tommy Williams see her fresh faced.

She said: "Tommy's never seen me without make up on. I'll get up half an hour before him go and take all the make up off and put it back on again before he wakes up. "You look like a foetus if you don't wear mascara."

Peterborough United footballer Williams has been with his girlfriend for three years and they have a son Rocky, two, together.

He said: "She's there to look good and wear female clothes and look like a woman."

McLean spends up to three hours a day grooming herself - and she even re-applied her make up after giving birth. "So the baby comes out, Nicola is sitting up, a fresh full face is on, the hair had been brushed and smoothed down," she said.

"It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do but still even then I had a full face on and nails done perfectly."

The 25-year-old ex-model refuses to change a light bulb and leaves Williams to do everything.

She claims to get anything she wants - apart from one thing. "Me and Tom are not married and you'll have to ask him the reasoning," she said. "It's the only thing that I want that I haven't got."

"I can see us getting married in the future," he said reluctantly.

Meanwhile female body builder Donna Davidson puts her family through hell as she trains for competitions - leaving hubby Neil to look after sons Tom and Adam.

The 42-year-old, from Berwick, spends hours a week exercising and dieting, and her mood swings are taking their toll on her family.

Neil Davidson said: "She's changed so much since we got married. We went to watch a body building competition and she was watching the girls on stage and said 'I can do that'.

"I said she was too old. It was like a red rag to a bull. I should have known better.

"She looks like some sort of character off Stargate Atlantis."

Son Tom said: "You can see the muscles in her cheeks. It is scary - it's incredibly freaky.

"She's so determined. She'll literally destroy anything that'll stop her in her path."

With Donna Davidson busy with her bodybuilding, it is her husband who is left to keep household ticking over.

He said: "We as a family have to adapt our lives basically to fit in with her bodybuilding."

Donna admitted: "It's not a team sport. It's an individual sport and I think you have to be a bit selfish."

But the Davidson family have had enough.

Donna said: "Preparing for a competition is an emotional rollercoaster.

I can go from being really happy and placid to psychotic at the click of a finger."

Her hubby added: "It wouldn't take a lot for her to burst into tears."

After losing out at the UK Body Building championships, Donna vowed to take a year of competing to spend more time with her family. "I want to relax at weekends and be a Mum again," she said.

Hayley Martin, from Cheshire, drives her husband potty with her obsessive-compulsive behaviour, which started when her dog died seven years ago.

Since then she has spent 20 hours a day checking everything.

Husband Peter said: "When I first met Hayley she was really bubby, fun to be with all the time, never sad, always happy. "We'd go away most weekends."

Now Hayley devotes her whole day performing checking rituals, which she believes will protect her family and friends.

She said: "Any simple task can take many hours.

"I believe that if I didn't do it in this way I really fear harm will come to my family or things I care about.

Peter said: "It controls her entire life. All her time is taken up checking and doing her routines.

"We don't spend a lot of time together, not compared with what we used to do because she's doing her routine.

"It's really sad. You want to scream out and say what's she's trying to do is so blindingly obvious but that doesn't help so you just let her get on with it."

Despite recognising her behaviour as irrational, Hayley can't stop her compulsion.

She hasn't spent a proper night in bed for seven years and sleeps for two hours a night in her car.

She said: "Because I'm so cold and uncomfortable in the car it wakes me up and leaves me enough hours to carry on with the rituals I have to do each day."

But Hayley is determined to beat her illness. She said: "There is some part of me that's quite tenacious and want to make the best of this.
"There is a fire inside of me that says I'm going to keep fighting."

By Maddy Biddulph, Jan 25 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy