Ben Ofoedu has slammed his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Feltz claiming she stole the “best years of my life” and used him as “a treat for the eyes.”
The Phats & Small singer, 51, told MailOnline he prefers to be with his new girlfriend Precious Muir, 34, because the 10-year age difference between him and Vanessa, 61, “creates insecurity”.
It’s been just over a year since Ben and Vanessa ended their 17-year relationship after This Morning’s agony aunt accused him of being unfaithful. He later admitted that he had slept with one woman and shared inappropriate text messages with another.
But since Vanessa went public, Ben says he’s been left “picking up the pieces”, and his ex “weaving a narrative to make me look like the bad guy” when he felt he’d been mistreated too.
Then came Precious, who he says makes him feel like he’s 34 again, the same age he met his ex-fiancée Vanessa, who he claims never wanted to marry him.
Ben Ofoedu slammed his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Feltz claiming she stole the “best years of my life” and used him as “a treat for the eyes” (pictured June 2021).
The Phats & Small singer told MailOnline he prefers to be with his new girlfriend Precious Muir (pictured) because the 10-year age difference between him and Vanessa “creates insecurity”.
It’s been just over a year since Ben and Vanessa ended their 17-year relationship after This Morning Agonia’s aunt accused him of cheating (pictured October 2023).
Ben said: ‘I wasn’t very smart about my last relationship. I didn’t look where the person was and love blinded me. I thought that love conquers all but inevitably that is not the case.
‘I gave myself to someone for a quarter of my life and in the end I got nothing out of it… it’s absolutely heartbreaking.
‘I met Vanessa when I was 34 and lived 17 years in her life and it was everything she wanted.
‘So now that I’m with Precious I feel 34 again and like I’ve got my life back. I have the same aspirations that I had at 34.
‘I’m looking forward to a bright future, many more Valentine’s Days, living together and having children… and these things are incredibly exciting for me.
“Precious has made me feel like I’ve got my life back.”
Ben met Precious at a showbiz event, having turned down the chance to find love on dating apps.
She is a model, film producer and reality television star, who appeared in the Channel 4 series The Circle.
Ben admitted he had slept with one woman and shared inappropriate text messages with another, telling the Sunday Mirror last year: “I betrayed the love of my life” (pictured in March 2022).
Precious is well aware of the public fallout between Ben and Vanessa, but hasn’t delved too deeply into the details, according to the musician (pictured in January 2024).
He says the couple “are on the same page” and are honest with each other about their future and where they see the relationship going.
It’s a stark contrast to how he felt dating Vanessa, who he believes only dated him for his looks and to make her feel young and modern.
He explained: “I was very in love, but I felt like I was being dragged along and she just wanted some candy on her arm, while I wanted marriage, kids and true love.”
‘For her, I felt like it was just a comfort. I was a younger, cooler guy which gave him a youthful appearance.
“A woman can take her best years, when she was 34, 35, 36 and even 40, and say he did this, and spin a narrative to make me look like the bad guy, and I’m left picking up the pieces.”
Ben prefers to be the older one in the relationship because he says it feels natural and there is less chance of his partner feeling insecure if they are dating an older man.
Precious is well aware of the public fallout between Ben and Vanessa, but hasn’t delved too deeply into the details, according to the musician.
When asked how he thinks Vanessa feels about her new relationship, Ben said, “I don’t think about her anymore.”
Ben prefers to be the older one in the relationship because he says it feels natural and there is less chance of his partner feeling insecure if they are dating an older man.
Ben is still angry that his ex-fiancée gave him false hope that they would one day get married and she should have settled down with someone else, instead of cheating on him (pictured in January 2024).
‘I don’t recognize her anymore. She used to know everything she thought and said, but she turned out to be a completely different person.
‘I don’t care what she thinks about my new relationship.
‘I felt used and like I was a nice decoration for his life. Sometimes you just have to move on. I’m really happy that my sex life is no longer in all the newspapers.’
The topic of marriage is a sensitive one for Ben, given how much he wanted to marry Vanessa while they were together.
And he’s still angry because his ex-fiancée gave him false hope that they would one day get married and she should have settled for someone else, instead of leading him on.
He said: “Before anything happened, it had been 15 years and then she became so bold as to say ‘I will never marry you’ and I know she says she just doesn’t want to marry the wrong person and it’s like who are you trying to deceive?
‘It became very, very embarrassing doing interviews together and finding reasons why we weren’t married. He should have said he didn’t want to marry me.’
Ben continued: “She’ll never get married, she could bet anyone a million pounds.”
“Instead of going to someone like me, who was young, in the prime of his life, and leading me down the garden path, I should have gone with a real estate developer named John or something like that.”
MailOnline reached out to Vanessa to get her reaction to Ben’s explosive interview.
Her representative responded: ‘Vanessa says she was forced to end the relationship because trust had been repeatedly destroyed.
“She hoped for a relationship of equals and was, and still is, a great believer in marriage to the right person.
‘Contrary to some reports, she feels relieved and liberated to be free of the relationship.
“She would very much welcome the day when he and his associates would stop using her name and giving interviews about her, having refrained from mentioning it even once since the separation.”