Ant off TV and back in rehab after drink drive arrest
Video shows star emerging from wreckage … as his career hangs by thread
SHAKEN and ashen-faced, Ant McPartlin emerges from his wrecked car after the three-vehicle smash and drinkdrive arrest that could end his career.
A passer-by approaches the dazed presenter, 42, whose £26,000 black Mini Cooper had collided with two cars, one containing a four-year-old girl, on Sunday afternoon.
McPartlin – who had a stint in rehab last summer for a painkiller addiction – nods as if to show he’s OK. The footage shows him looking down at the damage, appearing to realise his Mini has lost a wheel.
He had been out walking his labrador with his mother, who was also in the car, when it allegedly veered across the road, collided with a green Mini which had the girl and a couple inside, then was in collision with a maroon BMW.
Bystanders claimed he was ‘furious’ when he got out and was shouting at his mother, Christine. McPartlin, worth £60million, then allegedly failed a roadside breathalyser test. He, his mother and labrador Hurley were uninjured in the crash in Mortlake, South West London. The girl in the other Mini was taken to hospital as a precaution.
McPartlin’s career now hangs in the balance after he announced he was going back to rehab and cancelling all TV commitments. Last night, ITV pulled this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Takeaway. The future of his presenting partner Declan Donnelly may also be in jeopardy as they have spent the past 20 years as a double act.
A statement on behalf of both presenters said: ‘Ant has decided to go back into treatment and step down from his current TV commitments. He has spoken with Dec and ITV today and asked for time off for the foreseeable future.’
ITV later said it would consider its options for broadcasting the remaining Saturday Night Takeaway episodes, leaving open the possibility of Donnelly presenting alone. The broadcaster said it ‘very much’ hopes McPartlin, who is mid- way through a £ 30million ‘golden handcuffs’ deal, receives the ‘help he needs’.
McPartlin, who recently split with wife Lisa Armstrong, spent most of Sunday night in custody and was allowed home around 3am. The Metropolitan Police confirmed he was released ‘under investigation’.
Amy Cassie, 23, who helped McPartlin’s mother get out of the car, told the Daily Mirror: ‘Ant seemed furious after crashing the car and was shouting at his mum who was also in the car.
‘She was trying to get him to calm down. The couple in the green Mini were really shaken up and their child, who was a girl, could only have been about three years old.
‘Ant and his mum didn’t seem to have any injuries, but the mum in the green car had split her lip and the side of her face was very red.’
Another witness told The Sun: ‘Ant looked in a right state and was acting argumentatively towards a policewoman. I couldn’t believe it when I saw who it was.
‘The woman was trying to arrest him and get him in the police car but he clearly wasn’t having it. ‘
Motorcyclist Nicholas McNicol added: ‘ I came on the scene moments after it happened and he was being escorted to the police car to be put in the back. Everyone was in a state of shock at who it was. I was driving past very slowly and Ant looked straight at me and I thought he looked tired. I was only about 3ft from him.’
The former Byker Grove actor joined ITV along with Donnelly in 1998, and they have gone on to become Saturday night stalwarts – also presenting I’m A Celebrity and Britain’s Got Talent.
But McPartlin has suffered a string of personal setbacks, including entering rehab after struggling with an addiction to prescription painkillers following a knee operation in 2015. In January, he confirmed he and his wife were separating after 11 years of marriage.