The Chase star Mark Labbett’s wife has been ­cheating on him with a younger hunk, 28 for over a year

THE wife of The Chase star Mark Labbett has been ­cheating on him for over a year with a younger fella.

Katie, 26, holidayed with the hunk, 28, behind the back of Mark, 53. He is The Beast on the ITV quiz show where contestants are told: “You’ve been caught.”

The telly quiz king will today have a string of tough questions for wife Katie. Mark, known as The Beast on ITV’s The Chase, will want to know:

• WHY she has been on a string of nights out with a young hunk?
• WHAT she got up to when they went on holiday to the romantic Italian island of Capri?
• WHO she sees her future with — Mark, the father of her young son, or 28-year-old Scott Bate?

Katie has met Scott’s pals on nights out, with sources saying they have regular local pubs they use together.

A source said: “Scott and Katie have been seeing each other since 2017.

“He introduced her to friends in December that year.

“It took a while for people to realise who she was and that she was married. Then one of Scott’s friends confronted her and she got angry about it.

“She appeared on Loose Women with Mark and people started sending a clip around when they twigged who she was.

“People don’t think it’s right and think her behaviour is unfair on Mark — and Scott.”

Oxford-educated Mark, 53, went on ITV’s Loose Women with Katie in August 2017.

After chatting with Mark, presenter Andrea McLean introduced Katie with the words: “We’ve met The Beast, shall we meet the beauty?”

Mark, a favourite “Chaser” on the quiz hosted by Bradley Walsh, married Katie in October 2014 at Arundel Castle in West Sussex. They live in a ­village just outside Hereford.

Clues to Katie’s apparent ­double life appeared on the Facebook page of metals firm worker Scott. His profile picture was Katie with her arm around his neck.

Snaps showed them at a beer tasting, in front of a waterfall at the Watersmeet National Trust park in Devon and on a train on a separate day out.

On Valentine’s Day in 2018, Scott shared a picture of them on a night out the previous evening. He told a pal: “We did it a day early so it’s not as busy.”

Last June he shared a selfie of him and Katie in a clifftop location overlooking the sea in Capri. Other photos show them at a Hereford pub and in Bath.

In contrast, Katie’s open profile this week did not contain any pictures of them together.

The source said: “They have been seeing each other such a long time that he sees her as his girlfriend, which is wrong.

“We think Scott should cut ties with her but he is smitten and blinded to the situation.”

Yesterday — after being approached by The Sun on Sunday — Scott removed pictures and mentions of Katie from his Facebook page.

He said it was “no surprise” that his relationship with Katie was being talked about in Hereford. But he added: “I don’t want to comment. You will have to speak to her about it.”

Katie refused to answer the door at the detached cottage she shares with Mark two miles away.

But it looked like her husband was at home as a pair of large black training shoes were on the doorstep.

Minutes later Katie’s Range Rover Discovery was parked outside her parents’ home in a nearby village. Her father Simon insisted: “She’s not in another relationship.”

A spokesman for Mark — who has appeared on US and Australian versions of The Chase — declined to comment.

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