Married to Plastic: The Man with Five Doll Wives

It’s 1999, and I’m with Russell Howard….not Russell Howard the comedian, this is Russ Howard, a 42 year old self-employed guy from Maidstone who has a string of long-term relationships with plastic dolls instead of women. Russ is quite open about a lifestyle many would consider to be bizarre, and he talks about these ‘wives’ of his freely as if they’re real people. I’m not allowed to take pictures inside his house, but he has told me that no question is ‘off the table’. This is just as well, because I’m not – technically speaking – a journalist: I’m just a dabbling freelancer who likes to write about extraordinary people….and the best thing about extraordinary people is that they invariably love being written about.