He has kept studiously silent about the pregnancy of his wife, Carla Bruni.

ECONOMIST: French politics

The butcher had been a good man, friendly to her mother, always offering a kind word and picking out the best cuts for her, but his wife had been mean and silent as she took the money, and sometimes she had kept it a little longer in her hand, staring at it, as if she thought it might be some kind of foreign currency.

NEWYORKER: The Bell Ringer

He has so far remained silent about the controversy and on Tuesday his wife Alex Curran, 26, said they would not be commenting.

BBC: Gerrard receives Benitez backing

Before making a single remark about the nude female in front of him, one of his co-hosts takes a good five minutes to explain that he had been happily married for 50 years until his wife died last year - at such times, the silent naked woman in front of them almost seems forgotten and irrelevant.

BBC: Denmark's 'naked lady' TV show causes furore

He said he and his wife had also received silent calls from a withheld number in the weeks leading up to the fire.

BBC: Mick Philpott