There can be no winners in these sagas of curdled love and twisted family dynamics, no one to emerge triumphant from these toxic situations amplified by fame, wealth and power.
Adam, 31, tied the knot with TV chef Gordon Ramsay's daughter Holly, 25, at Bath Abbey on December 27, amid a bitter feud which saw his mother Caroline disinvited.
Breaking her silence to the Daily Mail on the bitter rift that has emerged this week between her family and the one her son is marrying into, 59-year-old Caroline meets me in a hotel in her home town.
Weddings have often been known to tear families apart as relationships are tested. And Adam Peaty and Holly Ramsay have found themselves in an ugly fallout with the swimmer's mother.
While Adam had to have the grit, determination and drive in order to become a gold medallist, he had relied on his mother' Caroline's support to get him there,