^{Sienna Miller had a fling with Jude Law's best friend, Daniel Craig, after discovering he had cheated on her with the children's nanny}

Instead of the moralising rebuke that often follows a public admission of adultery, Hall has been held up as more of a mascot for wronged (or at least disgruntled) women. Much like Diana, Princess of Wales, who is thought to have embarked on her affair with Dodi Fayed to make her former lover, Hasnat Khan, whom she wanted to marry, jealous. Or Sienna Miller, who embarked on a two-week fling with Daniel Craig mere months after her partner Jude Law (and Craig’s best friend) confessed that he’d slept with his children’s nanny.

The novelist Mokokoma Mokhonoana has said: “When a man cheats, it is said it is because he is a dog. When a woman cheats, it is said it is because her man is a dog.” So is the counter-affair a peculiarly female phenomenon? “There is still a gender bias when it comes to cheating,” says Dr Pam Spurr, psychologist and author of a new book, The Laws of Sisterhood. “We expect more men to have affairs. So when a woman does, it’s an unexpected twist that men may take particularly badly – and see as an even greater humiliation.”

^{Jude and Sienna: a revenge affair unsuprisingly sank, rather than saved, their relationship}

No wonder, then, that even if the intention of a revenge affair is to bring an unfaithful man to heel, it only serves to sound a relationship's death knell instead. Although Jerry’s affair was short-lived (two weeks), and Mick initially begged her to come back, she admitted it ultimately spelt disaster for their relationship.

Suzy Miller, author of The Alternative Divorce Guide, believes such affairs aren’t just used as weapons by the scorned party to wound their unfaithful partner - or to make them jealous - but restore wounded pride. “The first reaction to infidelity is fury and deep hurt,” she says. “The attempt to fight back is not about revenge. Your self-esteem is so smashed that having a relationship with someone, hearing them tell you you’re beautiful, is an antidote. It can feel healing.”

When Alice did finally go on her revenge date with her university sweetheart, however, it did no more good than sticking a plaster on a gaping wound. “It made me feel good initially because I was getting back at [my husband], but I didn’t feel really attracted to the man I was with. I’d picked him because it was easy, but the sex was awkward and I got nothing from it.”

Alice didn’t have a second date. Instead, she confronted her husband, who admitted to the texts with a junior colleague, but denied that anything had ever happened. Whatever the truth of the matter, Alice decided to keep her own dalliance to herself, they patched things up and remain together.

She had discovered the other biggest pitfall of a calculated revenge affair - it lacks the very thing that is thought to drive infidelity: passion. Which makes it, by every possible definition, a losing game.