JACI STEPHEN: I loathe the sadistic charade that is Valentine's Day just as much as this TV 錨，総合司会者, who 発表するd her 離婚 live on 空気／公表する. Now it turns out most of America does too. Together we CAN end this Hallmark House of Horrors!

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許す me to 宣言する once and for all: I hate Valentine's Day and ? it's very likely ? so you do.

There. Was that so hard?

I have my 推論する／理由s and I'm sure you have yours. Let's just get it all out in the open in the hopes that one day ? God willing ? we can finally do away with this sadistic charade.

So, here goes - I've never had a date on Valentine's Day. No, not one. Ever.

I almost had one when I was 16, when my 21-year-old boyfriend bought me a 抱擁する satin card, but the evening （機の）カム to nothing because I broke up with him when he seemed about to 提案する.

My 悲惨な love life in the その後の 47 years might 井戸／弁護士席 have been my 罰 for that fateful 非，不，無-romantic day. Surely Cupid couldn't be that cruel?

If he is, it means he's been operating not with a 屈服する and arrow but a veritable 兵器庫 of emotional 武器s of 集まり 破壊. All 目的（とする）d at me.

But guess what. I don't care.

I am blissfully happy to be spending another Valentine's Day alone and was 大いに 元気づけるd when Fox News 錨，総合司会者 Julie Banderas 発表するd on live TV that she was getting a 離婚 from soon-to-be ex-husband Andrew Sansone ? during the Valentine's Day segment on Gutfeld.

'F**k Valentine's Day,' she said. 'Yeah, it's stupid. Even when I was married I didn't give a s**t for Valentine's Day…井戸／弁護士席, I'm getting a 離婚.'

Finally, somebody calling it for what it really is ? a pointless 'Hallmark holiday.'

So many pretend to 心にいだく the day. But really - 深い 負かす／撃墜する - we know the truth. Under the cover of anonymity, more than seven out of ten DailyMail.com readers 認める that they 'hated' Valentine's Day too.

We're not alone! Why so pretend?

So much 圧力. The expense. The 軍隊d loved-up 表現s. Getting the 権利 gift.

It's men with girlfriends and wives who feel this the most 熱心に. Women want to be 支持を得ようと努めるd but men can never get it 権利.

Buy her chocolates ? 'You know I'm on a diet.' Don't get her chocolates ? 'Are you 説 I'm fat?' 宝石類 ? 'I hate amethyst. Why didn't you let me choose my own?' A meal in a fancy restaurant ? 'Why are you wasting money when we have a freezer 十分な of good food at home?' What about flowers ?? 'I can't believe you've just wasted $369.55 on a Heart 黒人／ボイコット Box of red roses' (from The Million Roses Company, should you be tempted). Perfume ? 'Why have you bought eau de toilette? You know I wear only eau de parfum.' The latter is more expensive, guys ? you need to know that.

許す me to 宣言する once and for all: I hate Valentine's Day and ? it's very likely ? so you do. There. Was that so hard?

But buy her nothing at all ? 'I knew you never loved me. I've wasted 30 years on you.'

It's a Hallmark house of horrors.

I feel about Valentine's Day the way Dickens's Scrooge felt about Christmas. Bah humbug, I 叫び声をあげる, when yet another card from a florist pops through my door, asking me to send flowers to my loved one. Bah humbug to the red hearts, 略章s and grinning teddy 耐えるs in every shop window. And 特に Bah humbug to the paella or the Chateaubriand 'for two', that restaurants bizarrely 主張する upon, making singletons feel alone on every other day of the year, too.

Like Scrooge and the visitations from his Christmas ghosts, this is the time of year when I am visited by the Ghosts of Men Past, the Ghosts of Men 現在の, and the Ghosts of Men Yet to Come.

Where do I begin with the Past? The older man who 廃虚d 30 years of my life (and counting) and whose 影をつくる／尾行する still ぼんやり現れるs in an unconscious 損失d by what I now know to be a 乱すd and 乱すing predator?

The 放送者 on a diet, who brought his slimline, calorie-counted meal for supper but decided to eat my food 同様に? No surprise he never lost any 負わせる.

The 新聞記者／雑誌記者 who was going to leave his girlfriend for me but decided to give it three months 'so that she can lose enough 負わせる to be attractive enough to 会合，会う someone else'? Yes, at that point, I decided he wasn't for me, after all.

My Australian Hungarian dentist who said, 'I'm 落ちるing for you in a big way', then （機の）カム out in a facial 無分別な and 捨てるd me?

The ginger haired, boring graphic designer to whom I gave thousands when he professed poverty and then bought a 瓶／封じ込める of Bollinger for women he fancied at another （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する ? on my tab. He left me for a nurse in Boston. That's all over, too now, and 明らかに his life's a mess. Broke his 脚 in the Boston snow. 捨てるd by the nurse. Karma?

The Liverpudlian who （人命などを）奪う，主張するd to be in the SAS based in Hereford in the UK and robbed me? How was I to know? He had a one-way rail ticket from Hereford to London; that seemed good enough 証拠 for me. I never was very good at spotting 犯罪のs ? always too blinded by the 可能性 of sex rather than the 来たるべき heist.

I am blissfully happy to be spending another Valentine's Day alone and was 大いに 元気づけるd when Fox News 錨，総合司会者 Julie Banderas (above) 発表するd on live TV that she was getting a 離婚 from soon-to-be ex-husband Andrew Sansone ? during the Valentine's Day segment on Gutfeld.?

So many pretend to 心にいだく the day. But really - 深い 負かす／撃墜する - we know the truth. Und er the cover of anonymity, more than seven out of ten DailyMail.com readers 認める that they 'hated' Valentine's Day too.

The Ghosts of Men 現在の don't fare much better.

The 新聞記者／雑誌記者 I started seeing 35 years ago and still have the hots for ??? it's just a pity his hots 延長するd to so many other women. A writer in the US who 約束d, 'I'll take you to a wonderful place and 扱う／治療する you to the best meal you've ever had' which quickly became, 'Shall I 選ぶ up a 挟む and bring it to your apartment?'

My 鎮圧する on yet another man I can't have ? married and wouldn't have 手配中の，お尋ね者 me even if he had been 選び出す／独身.

And, would you believe it, the graphic designer, who 接触するd me after 15 years, bemoaning his now terrible life on the grounds that I might 'understand'.

Small wonder that I'm not 楽観的な about the Ghosts of Men Yet to Come. But that's the thing about love ? its inherent 楽観主義 continues to 生き残る its own history, no 事柄 how bad it might have been. It's emotional childbirth ? it might be 堅い when you're going through it, but the memory of what love might be again resurrects itself and is what keeps us going.

At the end of every 関係, I always say: 'I won't make that mistake again.' I may not, but, 存在 human, I'll just make different mistakes.

My 悲惨な love life in the その後の 47 years might 井戸／弁護士席 have been my 罰 for that fateful 非，不，無-romantic day. Surely Cupid couldn't be that cruel?

And I've learnt from most of those mistakes. I say no to 挟むs when I'm 推定する／予想するing Chateaubriand for two at the Ritz. I don't lend men money. I also no longer believe anything that comes out of their mouths. Men are rotten liars, and I've learnt to 信用 my gut, which is what I should have done years ago. But hey 売春婦 ? hindsight and all that.

This, 式のs, is the problem with the Ghosts of Men Yet to Come. The Past is a wasteland of 不信 and 苦痛. The 現在の would be that, if I were not finding it all so enjoyable. The 未来, にもかかわらず the 生き残り of good memories, is 必然的に tainted with everything that has gone before. 疑惑, 疑問 and insecurity are inseparable triplets.

But I have a 広大な／多数の／重要な life. I am surrounded by wonderful family and friends and there is never a day I wake up when I don't feel 熱烈な about my work. I have always known I was a writer, and 存在 what I 現実に am, rather than harboring fantasies about what I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be, is a blessing every minute.

Love is not just for Valentine's Day. It's there for the taking every second, in so many more ways than chocolate and flowers.

The 現在の is all we really have ? or can ever hope for. Therefore, we might 同様に live it and enjoy it while we can. And you can do that perfectly 井戸／弁護士席 without a romantic 味方する kick.

So, Happy Valentine's Day to me.

I'm genuinely 感謝する to be by myself, 解放する／自由な of the 圧力s, the expense and, most of all, the 義務 to put on a 陳列する，発揮する of 偽の love.

Now, where's that Chateaubriand for one?