There must be reasons why this is happening over Christmas

Adrian Delia took his separation proceedings to a controlled interview on a Christmas TV special because he felt it would win him brownie points: not in the separation proceedings themselves one would imagine, but in his effort to ingratiate himself with voters.

At any other time, he did not entertain questions about his separation when fielding questions at his political engagements. At any one of those when the subject may have peeped through the window he played the joker of ‘these are personal matters and please respect my privacy’.

But in a controlled environment with a rent a crowd applauding him on cue, he answered questions he permitted to be asked ahead of time and used his separation and his loneliness this Christmas to cut a sympathetic figure.

That’s exactly like all those happy family photos in his leadership campaign where he projected himself as a family man and therefore eligible more than if he hadn’t been to the leadership of the Nationalist Party and, in the fullness of time, the country.

It is the same use of family — in good times and in bad — for a political end.

His move in Court, 11 weeks after he moved out of his matrimonial home, also coincided with Christmas.

Adrian Delia chose to file an urgent motion in court on Christmas Eve after 11 weeks since he has no longer lived in the same house as his children. He chose to ask the court to short-cut the timeframes for a response established by law to get an answer before Christmas.

A marital breakdown is indeed a private affair. The details are not, under normal circumstance, a matter for public digestion.

No one needs to know their politician is in court because the couple cannot agree how to split an expensive dinner set or how much the property is going to be sold for.

But Nickie Vella de Fremeaux replied to Adrian Delia’s urgent motion in court yesterday and the content, which she filed under oath, is very disturbing indeed. Adrian Delia knows just how serious it is.

And then one has to consider where the public interest in politicians’ private lives steps out of the realm of curiosity and prurient interest and goes into need-to-know.