The Worst Imaginable Way To Handle A Family Dispute

The ongoing Gordon Ramsay family drama has culminated today in an “open letter” to his mother-in-law. In sum, the saga has become a useful “What Not to Do” for in-laws!

1. Don’t make your father your business manager. Maybe this goes double if you’re planning to publicly cheat on said manager’s daughter. But, for a decade, Gordon Ramsay’s father-in-law Chris Hutcheson has been his business partner. First mistake.

2. After making said FIL your business partner, don’t then sack him.

3. When sacked by your celebrity son-in-law, it’s inadvisable to go to the media, call him a “warped” “monster,” and imply that he’s on drugs.

4. The wife of said sacked FIL need not, at this point, sever all ties with daughter and four grandchildren.

5. But, having done all this, it’s really a bad idea to address any grievances with the mother-in-law in a public letter. Especially one your publicists haven’t vetted. And one which refers to her husband as “manipulative,” criticizes his business acumen, admits you had him tailed by a PI, and insinuates all kinds of sinister secret lives.

Now, Ramsay is at least known for being a loose cannon, so in some ways all this distasteful business may be less damaging to his public persona than it really should be. (His floundering restaurant empire is another matter.) But from a personal perspective, “train wreck” doesn’t begin to do the situation justice and it sucks that there are kids involved. While we have a sneaking suspicion that the latest salvo won’t miraculously bring the family together, we can at least take it as a cautionary tale: do exactly the opposite, and you may have a shot at only average dysfunction.

Ramsay Rant [NY Post]
Gordon Ramsay’s Emotional Plea To Mother-In-Law: Don’t Cut Family Links [Guardian]
Gordon Ramsay’s Letter To His Mother-In-Law [Telegraph]