It’s easy to look at people on social media and assume that they’re living picture-perfect lives. Their hair and make-up is pristine, their outfits on-trend, their jewellery expensive. Their Instagram accounts are filled with idyllic snapshots of them going about their day-to-day life – and, often, their relationships seem like something out of a fairy-tale, too.

However, Fearne Cotton – presenter, mental health advocate, all-round brilliant human being – has always made a point of being honest about what’s going on in her life, whether it be good or bad. Indeed, in a bid to combat the “compare and despair” culture we experience on social media, Cotton recently opened up about a “rough patch” she and husband Jesse Wood (son of Rolling Stones star Ronnie Wood) were going through, insisting it’s important to have these honest conversations about the ups and downs of a relationship.

“I wrote that article to go ‘what a load of s***,’ [to the illusion of relationship perfection],” Cotton told The Telegraph.

“Every marriage… takes work. It doesn’t dilute our love or make our marriage any weaker, it actually makes it stronger because we’re willing to have those conversations.”

We completely agree, obviously. However, some “lazy” journalists decided to ignore the reasoning behind this revelation (and the part where Cotton said she’s “more in love than ever” with her husband, obviously) and instead use the quotes to shape yet another one of those baseless ‘celebrity marriage on the rocks’ articles.

Over the weekend, though, The Sun seemingly took things too far when they published an article emblazoned with the screaming headline: “FEARNE COTTON ADMITS HUSBAND JESSE WOOD DRIVES HER ‘MENTAL’ AT HOME AFTER MARRIAGE WOES”.

Uh-huh.

The piece used quotes from Cotton’s recent interview with Notebook magazine, in which the presenter joked about being a neat freak at home (note the use of the word ‘joked’). 

“Jesse is the opposite [to me],” said the Happy Place creator. “He makes a cup of tea and leaves the cupboard doors open, tea bags on the side, milk still out two hours later, it literally drives me mental. “But I do his head in too, because he’ll get clothes out to wear and I’ll have tidied them away before he even gets out the shower.”

The Sun article ran these jokey comments alongside quotes from Cotton’s previous column about experiencing a “rough patch” in her marriage, and voila! A scandal was born.

No wonder, then, that Cotton felt the need to respond to the article via Instagram.

Without referring to any publications by name, Cotton shared a photo of herself and Wood flipping the bird at the camera, their wedding rings clearly visible.

She captioned the shot: “To all the lazy journalists out there still writing misinformed articles about our marriage by truncating and conflating information. Never.been.happier.”

Naturally, the photo has attracted almost 300,000 likes in less than 24 hours, and the number is still growing.

“Hahahaha I LOVE this!!!” wrote one fan.

Another added: “YAAAAS Fearne!”

But, among the congratulatory “this is brilliant” and “you tell ‘em” messages, came one which stood out from the crowd.

“Don’t even bother justifying yourselves,” it read. “It’s no one else’s chuffing business.”

Cotton previously explained that being candid about the challenges of her marriage (both within that relationship and to the wider world) is part of a bigger commitment to charting the highs and lows of life.

“I’m happy to share the good and bad bits of myself because of course I’m not living this perfect, fairytale life,” she says. “What’s the point of me having a platform and a large following if I’m not talking about something that’s going to have a positive impact?”

Well, exactly. Fingers crossed that some of our more deliberately obtuse peers might start to follow Cotton’s good example, eh?

Image: Getty