The gas fitter dad who walked out on €70m star Ant
CASUALLY dressed in baseball cap and jeans, this is Ant McPartlin’s estranged father, who walked out on his son a few years before the youngster rose to fame in Byker Grove.
While his son has gone on to amass a £60million (€69million) fortune as a TV star, Ray McPartlin is a £15-anhour gas fitter living in a council house. Ant, meanwhile, is seeking help in rehab as he faces a drinkdrive charge, potential divorce and a career hanging by a thread.
According to friends, Ray has barely spoken to Ant since he left his son’s mother Christine Woodhall when Ant was just ten – some three years before the young actor joined the children’s drama that helped to make his name. Devoted mother-ofthree Christine has been a strong influence in Ant’s life – and was in his Mini Cooper last week when it was involved in a collision with a family’s car and he was arrested for drink-driving.
Christine brought up the presenter, now 42, and his sisters as a single mother after divorcing Ray, who later remarried.
Ray briefly tried to reconcile with his son when Ant married Lisa Armstrong in 2006, but the star ignored his efforts, according to relatives.
A source said: ‘Ray and Ant haven’t spoken properly in years. Ray is very proud of his son and everything he has gone on to achieve. But their relationship has been strained for a long time. I don’t think Ant has ever forgiven his dad for leaving him.’