Either way, woman's not denying love affair (5)

I believe the answer is:

event

Here is my best explanation:

'affair' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'either way woman's not denying love' is the wordplay.
'either way woman' becomes 'eve' (palindromic woman's name).
'denying' is a deletion indicator.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'not' with 'o' taken away is 'nt'.
'eve'+'nt'='EVENT'

This clue was last seen in The Guardian