Star chef Gordon Ramsay’s family troubles have become public after the celebrity chef sent an open letter to his mother-in-law, asking her to stop “punishing” her daughter.

The fiery Kitchen Nightmares star penned the letter, which was published in the London Evening Standard, following the fall-out with his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, whom he sacked last month after 12 years as business partners.

Mr Ramsay said he was writing the appeal after his wife, Tana, received a letter from her mother, Greta, asking her to stay away from her family. He wrote: “This has to be one of the most painful letters I’ve ever had to write. Listening to Tana in floods of tears reading your letter from you asking that she stays away from her family is so awfully wrong.”

He called the decision to remove his father-in-law from the business “the hardest and most important decision in my entire life” but accused him of being manipulating and controlling. He wrote that Mr Hutches recently “suggested my mood swings were down to involvement with drugs; my God did that hurt. How dare he ever suggest this on the back of my frustration and dealings with my younger brother and his addiction”.

Mr Ramsay, who wrote the letter on his 44th birthday, concluded “I know how hard this must be for you Greta, and I’m not expecting a birthday card, but your (sic) punishing your daughter and our four children, for all the wrong reasons, it’s so sad. She’s an amazing woman and you’ve been a fantastic mum please don’t stop!”