‘Not having kids was incredibly painful for them’
an aspiring 17-yearold singer in girl band Deuce, who were supporting Ant, then 18, and his best pal Dec, then known as PJ and Duncan.
After an eleven-year romance, Ant proposed to Lisa while on holiday in Dubai in 2005, and the pair tied the knot in July 2006 in a lavish wedding in Buckinghamshire, surrounded by family and friends. The couple built up hugely successful careers, with Ant becoming one of the country’s bestloved TV presenters and Lisa carving out her own career as a make-up artist to the stars, working on primetime TV shows such as Strictly.
The pair have built up a huge network of celebrity pals, who counted them as one of the most solid couples in the industry. Speaking about the I’m A Celeb! host in a rare interview in 2006, Lisa said, “I’ve always felt relaxed with him. And when we met, there was something about his hair and eyes that made me feel all gooey.”
BABY HEARTACHE
However, trouble was first hinted at when Ant revealed the pair had been struggling to start a family. Speaking in 2013, Ant said, “We’d love to have kids. We’re trying. It’s tougher than you think when you get a bit older.”
Our source reveals, “Not having children was incredibly painful for both of them, but they desperately tried to not let the sadness affect them.”
Pals say 42-year-old Ant’s admission into rehab last summer for painkiller addiction was the beginning of the end for the couple.
The source adds, “Ant’s addiction issues put a huge amount of pressure on their marriage; problems he’d been burying suddenly came to the surface. His behaviour in the months leading up to his rehab stint was extremely uncharacteristic.”
Reports of marriage troubles swirled as soon as Ant returned from rehab and moved out of their west London mansion into a nearby flat – with the couple not being pictured together for over four months. And Closer revealed how they’d met for crisis talks in a desperate bid to make things as amicable as possible.
BATTLE FOR CUSTODY
The source adds, “Keeping their distance is quite tricky when they have [their dog] Hurley. Right now, they’ve decided to share custody of him and the housekeeper has been ferrying him back and forth. Neither of them is prepared to give him up, and Ant is aware that taking Hurley would break Lisa’s heart even more. So, if anything, she’ll have him slightly more often than Ant.”
But pals say that despite Lisa’s hesitance to accept the marriage is over, she’s trying to focus on moving on.
The source says, “Lisa isn’t interested in dragging this out. At the moment, they’re both throwing themselves into work to distract themselves and trying their utmost not to let things turn bitter as they attempt to rebuild themselves.”