TV presenter Ruth Dodsworth reveals financial control by ex-husband
TV presenter Ruth Dodsworth has shared her experience of being denied access to her own money by her ex-husband, Jonathan Wignall, who gave her "absolutely no access" to her finances, forcing her to ask him for cash to buy anything.
Wignall was jailed in 2021 for coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking. Dodsworth, known for presenting the weather on ITV Wales, later discovered she had been left "absolutely penniless" and burdened with debts in her name that she was unaware of.
She also described the "bewilderment" she felt when reporting Wignall to the police, noting that she had not previously understood what controlling behaviour entailed.
Speaking on Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett, Dodsworth recounted meeting Wignall in her early 20s, describing him as "charismatic" and wealthy, which initially impressed her.
"He was charismatic, he had money, [and] I just thought 'wow'."
However, their relationship changed after Wignall's nightclub business began to fail.
"He went from being effectively this larger than life successful business character to almost the other end of the scale," she said.
"What I was earning as a little bit of pocket money suddenly became the be-all-and-end-all… that shift in our relationship probably also marked a shift in his behaviour towards me."
Financial control and isolation
Dodsworth explained that money was a key method of control used by Wignall.
"It happened sort of slowly but surely," she said.
"My salary would go into my bank account but then he would take it out, so I would say in the last few years I had absolutely no access to my own money."
She described how having to ask for money allowed Wignall to maintain control and isolate her.
"I had to ask him for money if I wanted to buy a sandwich at lunchtime. I would get the exact amount so he knew I could go and get a meal deal from a local supermarket and it didn't give me the means to go elsewhere, to sort of socialise with work colleagues, who may perhaps have been male."
Dodsworth said her bank card disappeared and was never replaced, and Wignall would give her cash instead.
"He would also turn up at her workplace to 'check' what she was doing," she added.
She explained that part of her job involved filming on location with crews that were mostly male, so she had to prove her whereabouts to Wignall, including FaceTiming him and enduring his visits to her workplace.
"Part of my job is that I'm away filming, I'm on location. A lot of our crews are male, so I'd have to effectively prove who I was with, show that I was where I said I was, FaceTime him. He would turn up at work just to check."
Her mobile phone, essential for work and contact with the outside world, became a point of control.
"I was asleep in the middle of the night one night, woke up and he'd got my thumb on my phone trying to use my thumbprint to open my phone," she said.
Fear and emotional distress
In the later years of their marriage, Dodsworth said she became "terrified" of Wignall.
"My hair was coming out," she said.
"I'd get to work, I'd cry all the way in, I'd go and lock myself in the dressing room, pile as much makeup on as I possibly could.
It got to a point where I just didn't know how to cope with what was happening to me, against the backdrop of an expectation of being professional."
The night before Wignall was arrested in October 2019, Dodsworth's children called her at work, warning her not to return home.
"The last conversation I had was with a man who was irrational, made no sense, was screaming and shouting [that he was] going to get in the car and drive to ITV to get me, because at this point the children were ringing me saying don't come home," she said.
"They were teenagers, they were young teens, they had the foresight to hide the car keys so he couldn't get in the car, and the foresight to ring me to tell me what was going on."
Legal proceedings and aftermath
Following Wignall's arrest, Dodsworth spent 10 hours at a local police station making statements about deeply personal and degrading aspects of her life.
She said she had not understood controlling behaviour until a police liaison provided her with a booklet described as "an idiot's guide to coercive controlling behaviour," which gave her clarity.
"…where you think 'oh my gosh, tick tick tick'."
Wignall pleaded guilty to one count of coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking. In April 2021, he was sentenced to three years in prison at Cardiff Crown Court and was issued a restraining order preventing contact with Dodsworth.
Dodsworth described the day of sentencing as challenging.
"Within 20 minutes of him being sentenced my phone was pinging and it was [members of the press saying] 'we were at sentencing, will you talk about it?'" she recalled, adding: "I hadn't seen that coming."
"The next day it was everywhere. I look back now and... the fact that it went public was probably the best thing that ever happened."
However, she said it felt awful at the time because her neighbours, family, colleagues, and even strangers learned about some of the worst moments of her life.
Rebuilding life and independence
Dodsworth explained that rebuilding her life was difficult.
"Suddenly I found myself without a husband, without a bank account, with a credit rating that had been absolutely destroyed."
Her parents had to act as guarantors to help her rent a home, which she described as a "very degrading process."
She described a pivotal moment after obtaining her own bank account when she bought a coffee without needing to ask permission or explain herself.
"I didn't have to get a receipt and I didn't have to hand the change back, and I didn't have to explain and I didn't have to ask permission.
I just bought the coffee, and that might sound like the simplest thing but it was one of the biggest achievements in my new life."
Dodsworth expressed her desire to demonstrate that it is possible to rebuild and have a happy life.
"I am so lucky that I am here and I will, until the day I die, use my voice and my experience so that we can keep the conversation going and we keep it out there."
In December 2025, Dodsworth was awarded an OBE for her services to abuse survivors.
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story, the BBC's Action Line provides a list of organisations that can offer support.
