Most people admit the green-eyed monster appears from time to time.
But one woman lets jealousy run unchecked.
Debbi Wood and her husband Steve appeared on ITV’s This Morning in 2013 to talk about their relationship.
In that interview, Debbi — who had been married twice before and earned the label ‘the world’s most jealous woman’ — revealed she had purchased a lie detector test.
Steve says he once made a casual remark that he wasn’t doing anything wrong and would “even take a lie detector test to prove it.”
Their distrust began early in the relationship.
When they first dated, they lived far apart and hadn’t defined their status.
During that period, Steve saw someone else.
Although they later became exclusive, Debbi felt “resentful towards [Steve] for the slight deception,” she says.
That resentment escalated into intense jealousy.
She made Steve take lie detector tests every time he came home, and she checked his bank and phone records.
“Well, when you’ve got a good man, you’re not going to let him go, are you?” she said.
In a follow-up This Morning interview the next year, Steve downplayed the frequency of the tests.
He said they use them “as many times in a month as [they] would in a week,” and added it’s more like “once in a blue moon.”
Tests aren’t the only restriction Steve faces.
Debbi also limits what he can watch on television.
She told the Mail she panicked when an advert for a women’s razor aired, worrying Steve might admire the model.
“The only thing that could put my mind at rest was banning him from watching any programmes that have women in them,” she said.
On This Morning she explained she can “understand a man admiring somebody that’s beautiful because all women have an inner beauty and an outer beauty,”
but she objects when men start “sexually fantasising about another woman.”
During the interview, Phillip Schofield noted Debbi complimented his appearance, questioning why she could do that but not Steve.
Steve quickly returned the compliment and the exchange ended with laughter.
Debbi has also been diagnosed with a recognised medical condition called Othello Syndrome.
The National Library of Medicine describes it as a “psychotic disorder characterized by delusion of infidelity or jealousy; it often occurs in the context of medical, psychiatric or neurological disorders,”
which helps explain the intensity of her jealousy.
Steve said: “When we’re not arguing about this, our relationship is absolutely amazing.
“I make her laugh in ways she’s never laughed before. She makes me laugh in ways I’ve never laughed before.”