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It's stressful enough planning a wedding without receiving a email from your future mum-in-law detailing your many failings.

But when the message, in which she says she pities your husband-to-be, becomes a global internet hit you know the Big Day is going to be a bit awkward.

Heidi Withers, 29, received the rebuke from Carolyn Bourne, stepmum of her fiancé Freddie Bourne.

The PA forwarded the email, which described her as an "ideal candidate" for the ladette to lady TV show, to friends and it spread like wildfire.

Mrs Bourne, 60, described Ms Withers' behaviour on a visit to the family home in Dawlish, Devon, as "staggering in its uncouthness and lack of grace" and then gave examples of her lack of manners and instructions on how to behave.

She wrote: "It is high time someone explained to you about good manners. Yours are obvious by their absence and I feel sorry for you."

The flower nursery owner added is high this was not the first time she had experienced her "bad manners". She added: "If you want to be accepted by the wider Bourne family I suggest you take some guidance from experts with utmost haste."

Mrs Bourne, who is married to Freddie's dad Edward, 63, also attacked her desire to wed in a castle, describing it as "brash celebrity style behaviour". Mr and Mrs Bourne and their son, who runs an online bike shop and lives in Putney, south west london, all refused to comment.

It is not the first time a private email has gone viral. An exchange between Harry Fildes, 25, and Sebastian Marsh, 24, about an ex-girlfriend spread round the globe in March.