Ant & Dec admit there was ‘a real chance they’d never work together again’ amid Ant’s issues

Ant & Dec have admitted they nearly ended their professional relationship for good  when Ant was struggling with personal issues a few years ago.

Speaking during an interview on The One Show on Wednesday night, the presenting duo – both 44 – reflected on the period between 2017-2019 when Ant went to rehab twice and took time away from his role as Dec’s co-host.

Admitting they ‘absolutely’ thought they were parting ways, the TV duo said time apart allowed them to reflect and work on their relationship.

Recalling their time filming Ant & Dec’s DNA Journey over the last few years, Ant 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.

Dec added: ‘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.’ 

The pair are releasing a book about their 30 years in showbiz and spoke about some of the issues addressed in it – namely Ant’s personal struggles.

Ant said: ‘When you take time out you have a chance to look at your life, look at what’s making you happy, look at what you can change; and I was going through quite a lot at the time. 

‘It was the best decision to take time out of work because that wasn’t the most important thing, I just had to get myself right and I did. 

‘[Dec and I] spoke a lot as friends, forgetting the career, and we decided that the best thing to do would be to get happy, get well and come back when I was better and that’s what we did.’ 

Dec added that ‘it was an incredibly difficult time’, musing: ‘For me I just wanted to fulfill our obligations, I wanted to do the TV shows and keep them going and when the time was right I knew we would sit down together and decide what the future would hold for us both.

‘I didnt know if Ant was going to come back and say I want to be a pig farmer in Wales! 

‘Both of us individually went away and thought about what the future could hold, would hold and what we wanted it to hold and ultimately at the end of it all we sat down together and were very honest with each other and we both realised that what made us happiest was being together and working together and that’s how we wanted to continue.’

Ant added: ‘When you do come back together you enjoy it more. The enforced break makes you think about the importance of things and we realised we just love being together.’ 

Ant stepped away from his TV commitments in 2017 when he was treated for an addiction to painkillers.

But things took another turn for him in 2018 when he was involved in a road accident and arrested on suspicion of drink-driving, which he later pleaded guilty to, was banned for 20 months and fined Britain’s highest-ever penalty for drink-driving, £86,000.

As well as this, he was going through a divorce from wife of 11 years Lisa Armstrong. 

He went into rehab and sat out I’m A Celebrity… that year, with Holly Willoughby stepping in to co-host with Dec. His TV comeback came in January 2019, for Britain’s Got Talent.

The pair also hinted at backstage tensions at BGT – a show they have co-hosted for 14-years.

They told a cryptic tale about how they met with show boss and head judge Simon Cowell once, to tell him they were thinking of quitting.

Dec recounted a time when they met Simon in Los Angeles for dinner, on a layover en route to filming I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in Australia.

‘We had been unhappy about various things backstage for a while. We felt like maybe the time was right to move on,’ he said. ‘Simon said, “I thought the latest series of BGT was amazing, don’t you?” And we said no not really.

‘We talked about leaving and he said, “you’re never leaving, don’t say that it’s never happening”. And he made some promises and things turned around after that.’ 

The One Show airs weekdays at 7PM on BBC One.