Commons speaker John Bercow has insisted he is not a sex symbol - despite his wife suggesting the role had made him more attractive.
The 51-year-old politician hinted wife Sally, who he has been married to for 11 years, was merely joking when she made the comments in an interview with ES magazine in 2011.
He told The Times Magazine: "I have most certainly not become a sex symbol. She [his wife] does have a very good sense of humour."
Mr Bercow, who is just 5'6" (1.7m), said he was "never bothered about being short".
He said: "Whereas nobody these days would regard it as acceptable to criticise someone on grounds of race or creed or disability or sexual orientation, somehow it seems to be acceptable to comment on someone's height, or lack of it.
"Does it affect me, personally? Not at all. It's just low grade, intellectually substandard and schoolboyish."
In 2011, Mrs Bercow sent ripples around Westminster when she appeared in a newspaper wearing nothing but a bedsheet.
She also spoke at the time of the "aphrodisiac" effect of their life at the Palace of Westminster.
Mr Bercow said the couple are not fazed by scrutiny of their marriage, which has made headlines on a number of occasions, including when a photograph of Mrs Bercow kissing a mystery man at a West End nightclub appeared in the Sun newspaper.
He said: "Sally and I have our own approach to marriage and we are perfectly comfortable in our own skin.
"And, in the politest possible way, I think I would say: if other people disapprove of it or think it should be otherwise, that's their problem, not ours."
She said: “No marriage is perfect but ours works for us. We’ve known each other for 25 years and been married for 11. I wish the media would stop judging – all marriages are different.”
Additional reporting by the Press Association
