Why Mick Hucknall may not have slept with 3,000 women

The Simply Red singer has claimed he was taken far too literally when he estimated his number of sexual partners

Name: Mick Hucknall.

Age: 59.

Appearance: Long, curly, red hair. Irresistible.

I reckon I could resist him. Well you may be alone. In the 80s and 90s, Hucknall was almost as famous for sleeping with large numbers of women as he was for singing oppressively popular soul ballads.

I wonder if the two were connected? I think they were. Hucknall is now happily married, but his past lovers reportedly include Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ulrika Jonsson, Helena Christensen, Melanie Sykes, Lady Victoria Hervey and Steffi Graf.

Crumbs. That is certainly a lot of famous women from the 90s. And how many are we talking about altogether? Well, the figure of 3,000 is often quoted …

Three thousand! Are you kidding? No. Hucknall has never denied living like a playboy for many years, and that figure comes from an interview he did in 2010 with this newspaper.

A fine publication. Indeed. “Between 1985 and 1987, I would sleep with about three women a day, every day,” were his words in 2010. “I never said no. This was what I wanted from being a pop star.”

That sounds less like a playboy lifestyle and more like a sponsored challenge for charity. Do the maths, and it makes a total of 3,285 sexual encounters in three years. Luckily for Mick, none of them were leap years.

What a relief. Still, he has now told the Sunday Times that he was taken far too literally about the actual number. “I have no idea,” he says. “I don’t put chips on the bedposts. I haven’t a clue and have never thought about calculating.”

I guess 3,000 always seemed a stretch. I mean, that’s like 100 Nick Cleggs! Clegg said he had slept with 30 women, didn’t he? Well … kind of. That notorious “fact” came from a GQ interview with Piers Morgan in 2008.

OK. Morgan asked Clegg: “How many are we talking: 10, 20, 30?” To which Clegg said: “No more than 30.” Morgan: “So there are 30 women out there who could answer the question?” Clegg: “It’s a lot less than that.”

So he actually claimed he had slept with fewer than 30 women? I’m afraid so.

Are there no womanisers left in the world? I’m sure they exist, although it is thankfully out of fashion to talk about it with such gusto.

There’s always the PM, I suppose. Ah, yes, a man with a long and tangled sexual history.

How many women has he slept with? I doubt that anybody knows that. And it’s likely that he will be as honest about that as he was about Brexit.

Do say: “Hey there. Haven’t we met before?”

Don’t say: “Hey there. I’ve only had sex twice so far today, will you help me meet my target?”

The GuardianTramp

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