Dec Donnelly wanted to snub showbiz and become a priest after losing role

Dec Donnelly almost became a priest.

Long before becoming one half of beloved showbiz duo Ant and Dec, the Geordie star almost went down a very different career path.

The 44-year-old, who hosts a string of ITV shows including Britain’s Got Talent and I’m A Celebrity, wanted to turn his back on the industry after losing the lead role in kids’ show Geordie Racer.

He made it down to the final two before producers phoned him up to deliver the crushing news – he didn’t get it.

Looking back on losing the part, he wrote in his and Ant’s first autobiography Ooh! What a Lovely Pair: “After that crushing rejection, I made a momentous decision: that was it – I was going to retire from acting. I was eleven.”

Dec later made his big comeback when he landed the role of Duncan in Byker Grove in 1989, after one of the producers of Geordie Racer wrote him a letter to say he should continue acting.

Dec, who was used to performing at the Tyneside Irish Centre which his parents ran, went on to become one of the country’s biggest stars alongside his best pal Ant McPartlin, who joined the show as PJ one year later.

But things could have gone very differently if Dec had gone with the other career he had in mind.

Dec recalled in his book how he briefly considered becoming a priest like his brother Dermott.

He penned: “Later on, when I was about fourteen, I did briefly consider following in his footsteps, and the footsteps of my Godfather, Father O’Connell, and becoming a priest.

“Then I got the bus home from school one day and it was full of lasses from the local girls’ school, Sacred Heart. I knew right there and then that the priesthood wasn’t for me.”

Dec continued to focus on his showbiz career instead, and after he teamed up with Ant on the set of Byker Grove, their fates were sealed.

It was actually their shared love of Newcastle United that saw the lads become best mates.

Ant recalls how he sent Dec a Christmas card in 1990, which included a note inside: “PS Fancy going to the Swindon match on Boxing Day?”

It was the first time the lads had socialised together outside of work.