Ant and Dec ‘almost split for good’ over Ant’s addiction issues

Ant and Dec have admitted their strained relationship was on “autopilot” and they split up as a partnership during Ant’s rehab and marriage woes.

The much-loved pair are celebrating 30 years together as TV’s most popular presenting duo famous for ITV shows like Saturday Night Takeaway and I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here.

Writing about their careers, they admitted for the first time they took “a break” and considered walking away a couple of years ago when things went wrong, but after talking with family and friends decided to continue because of the love they have for each other, and now want to work together for another 30 years.

Ant, 44, was convicted of drink driving in April 2018 and went to rehab and cancelled a number of TV commitments as a result, including the Britain’s Got Talent live shows and I’m A Celebrity that year. He announced he and ex-wife Lisa Armstrong were splitting in January 2018 and they have subsequently divorced.

Referring to ITV show Ant and Dec’s DNA Journey which traced their ancestry and aired last year after being filmed over several years, Dec said: “Looking back, when we went into DNA, our relationship wasn’t where it should have been. We were on autopilot, working too hard and taking each other for granted, but Ant’s break forced us both to evaluate everything, almost from the perspective of an outsider.

“There was a real chance we were never going to work together again. Not knowing if Ant and Dec would continue was very scary for us both. Since 1990 we’ve made every decision together for the sake of Ant and Dec. Every discussion we’ve ever had has been ‘what are we going to do? What’s best for us?’ And now suddenly, we had to think about ourselves as individuals. ‘What do I want to do? What’s best for me?’. That felt like an alien mindset to adopt and it was very frightening.

“It was something we really took time over. We both spoke to lots of people, friends and family, and we both individually came to the conclusion that we wanted to keep working together. A break helped us realise how much we love what we do, and ultimately how much we love each other.”

Ant added: “By the end of making DNA, our partnership was so much stronger than it had been at the beginning, because so much had happened to us both. I’d gone through rehab and a divorce and Dec had become a dad for the first time. These are seminal points in your life, huge moments that, especially in my case, could have gone either way.

“There were times in my recovery when I wasn’t sure I’d work again, or if I’d get to work with Dec, if we’d ever get to be Ant and Dec again. That sounds crazy now, but at the time it weighed heavily on my mind, because, at first, my prime focus had to be on getting myself well.”

The pair were speaking in a brutally honest chapter of their new book Once Upon A Tyne, out this week and celebrating three decades in showbusiness as TV stars.

In the DNA documentary the pair also spoke about the ups and downs of their friendship over the last few years.

Speaking on the ITV doc last year, Dec said: “It has been a tough couple of years and it has tested the bond we have shared since we were 13 years old. I was incredibly angry at the start, so angry. Disappointed that he didn’t ever come to me and say ‘I am struggling, I need you’ because that is what I would do if the shoe was on the other foot. And he never came to me and that hurt me a lot.

Ant added: “I knew he was angry and understandably so because my actions affect him and his loved ones. I had to think of everything other than work and concentrate on me and repairing relationships and being a better person and working out what was important and what wasnt and big life decisions. Work was a far down the line.”

Since Ant’s troubles the pair have bounced back and are as popular as ever, picking up their 19th NTA Best Presenter award in a row in January.

Looking ahead, Ant said: “But I’ll tell you what, we don’t think ‘we’ve done it’. I don’t think we’ll ever feel like we’ve made it – and that’s a lot of what drives us.

“In other words, it’s time to start thinking about the next 30 years! We still have so much energy and enthusiasm and I sometimes think 30 years won’t be enough time; part of me feels like we’re just getting started.”

Dec said: “We’re just as motivated as we always have been, if not even more so, to do better work. Part of that is that we’ve started thinking about our legacy, about what we’ll leave behind for people to watch.”

Ant also talks in the book of how he has also reconciled with his dad Ray and the pair are now close for the first time in around a decade.

He said: “In 2017, we hadn’t seen or spoken to each other for ten years and my relationship with him didn’t really exist. But once I started finding out stuff about the paternal side of my family, it felt like the right time to contact him. When a parent leaves and you have a distant, sometimes non-existent relationship, it means that when you do see them, you can struggle to find common ground, but now I had a whole family history to tell him about, like my great-grandfather, the war hero.

“And when we did meet up, we bonded over all that immediately. He loves history too, so it gave us an immediate and brand new connection. He even remembered some details about Peter McPartlin. My dad recalled times as a kid when he would sit on his knee and his granddad would tell him all about having a bullet hole in his arm – that was from Somme, which DNA had taught me all about.

Me and my dad’s relationship has blossomed from there and it’ gone from strength to strength ever since. Without the show that might never have happened.”

Dec uses the book to speak emotionally about how being a father has changed him. He and wife Ali have a daughter, Isla, born in September 2018.

He said: “Becoming a dad has completely transformed me. At first, like all expectant parents, I didn’t truly understand how much it was going to change me. I just thought ‘It’s another little person coming to live in the house’.

“It opened up a whole other side to me, a side I didn’t know existed. I felt a love that I didn’t realise it was possible to feel.

“Everything I do, every day, is for my daughter now. And, of course, going on my DNA journey was a huge part of that – me finding out where I came from is something she will always have and, hopefully, growing up, it will give her a clear sense of who she is and where she’s from. Doing the show ended up being for her.”

*Once Upon A Tyne – Our Story Celebrating 30 Years Together On Telly by Ant and Dec, published by Sphere, is out on Thursday