This philandering chef cooked up a real mess for his former family.
A Massachusetts woman whose reality TV chef husband allegedly abandoned her and their two children reportedly managed to track down the deserter in a day thanks to the “power of Facebook.”
As it turned out, the scoundrel had decamped to Texas, where he’d been matching with oodles of other women on dating apps while she was home with the kids.
Per an X thread with millions of views, the sordid saga came to light after scorned woman Ashley McGuire penned a Facebook post imploring the public to help her locate her hubby, who had been MIA for a year.
“This is my husband, Charles Withers. He loves to be the center of attention but I’m not sure how much he’s going to like this,” the mother-of-two wrote in the post, which she uploaded to the popular Facebook group “Are We Dating the Same Guy” on Saturday. “Last year, when I was pregnant with our youngest baby, he decided being a husband and a dad wasn’t the lifestyle he wanted anymore and he ghosted, like gone without a trace.”
She continued, “He has one baby he hasn’t seen in over a year, and one he’s never met. He’s moved somewhere out of state and changed his phone number.”
McGuire described her long-lost lover as “British and Charming AF,” adding that the chef is probably working in the “hospitality industry somewhere” and has “probably never mentioned having a wife or kids back in Massachusetts.”
Before flying the coop, Withers had reportedly been a rising star on the Falmouth dining scene, where the Londoner helmed the seafood depot C Salt Wine Bar and Grille, the Boston Globe reported in 2021. The Brit had even appeared in a 2022 episode of the reality TV show “Chopped” on The Food Network.
McGuire said that ultimately she wanted to close “this chapter” and move on with her life, writing, “Divorcing someone who’s completely unreachable is really tough and drawn out, so I’m trying to track him down to get his signatures on a few papers.”
“If you know him, if you’re working with him, if you’re dating him or friends with him, can you please have him get in touch with me or let me know where I can find him,” she pleaded.
The Post reached out to both McGuire and Withers for comment.
Low and behold, the internet was quick to heed the call: Less than 24 hours after McGuire’s initial announcement, multiple women came forward on the Texas branch of FB’s “Are We Dating the Same Guy” group, claiming that they’d matched with Withers on dating apps, per a TikTok clip currently going viral.
“I matched with him on Bumble just a few weeks ago,” declared one, per a screenshot.
Other women claimed to have the number and address of McGuire’s lover on the lam, who is reportedly somewhere in the Lone Star state, per a followup clip.
Needless to say, McGuire says she was grateful to the social media sleuths for bagging her man.
“I’ve gotten more than enough information to locate him,” the grateful parent wrote in a follow-up FB post. “I have literally hundreds of messages to sort through, some with information and some with support, and I appreciate all of them.
She added, “Single moms are a special breed, and I know a lot of you have gone through the same situation I have.”
Despite her future ex-hubby’s heinous act, McGuire insisted that she does not “wish him any type of ill will.”
“I sincerely appreciate all of your support, but please do not make threats, spread hate, or try to go out and locate him,” she said. “Truly I only want to see this situation resolved so me and my children can restart our lives and fix the damage done.”
Unfortunately, Wither’s odious actions weren’t limited to betraying his fam.
Before departing Massachusetts, the chef had allegedly “sold a crap ton of gift cards and then just took the money and closed up shop, leaving all the customers and employees out in the dark with unpaid wages and unusable gift cards,” per the aforementioned TikTok video.
As of yet, this has to be confirmed, although the restaurant is listed as “permanently closed” on Google. Meanwhile, many angry parties accused him of stealing their “gift card dollars” on the restaurant’s TripAdvisor page.
“My relative gave me a gift card last year /2022 to C-Salt for a special birthday.
I went to use it this November 2023 only to find out the restaurant has closed and stealing my gift card dollars!” claimed one. “That should be illegal, stealing customers’ unused dollars! Massachusetts laws should not allow this monetary theft to happen!”
They added, “I will never go to any new restaurants that the former owner of C-Salt /Charles Withers opens up on Cape Cod or in Massachusetts in 2023 or beyond Charles Withers does not deserve any patronage for his deceit to pay in advance customers!”
