Dad who walked out on £60m Ant is a £15-an-hour gas fitter
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 fortune as a Tv star, ray McPartlin is a £15-an-hour gas fitter living in a council house.
Ant, meanwhile, is seeking help in rehab as he faces a drink-drive 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- of-three 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.
She 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 all those years ago and they are not close.
‘ray did try to reach out to Ant before his wedding, but I don’t think Ant was interested in repairing the relationship with him. Too much has gone on.’
After his drink-drive arrest the I’m a Celebrity host, who lives in a £6million home in Chiswick, West London, has entered rehab for a second time. he is due to appear at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on April 4.
Meanwhile, at the weekend his long-term presenting partner Declan Donnelly will host their hit show, Ant and Dec’s Saturday night Takeaway, without his co-star for the first time ever.
The pair have been inseparable since starring together on BBC drama Byker Grove in 1989.
As a schoolboy, Ant helped care for his younger sisters, emma and Sarha, while their mother worked three jobs to support the family.
A neighbour of Ant’s father – who lives in a modest two-bedroom house on a downat-heel newcastle housing estate run by a housing association, but often works away from home – revealed: ‘ray is a quiet man and never talks about his famous son.
‘Ant never visits him here although he has been up to the neighbourhood in the past to visit a cousin.’
The neighbour said the family break-up years ago had ‘a huge and significant impact on Ant’.
She added: ‘everyone round here knows he’s Ant’s dad and I bet he watches his son on the telly. We all do. he’s great entertainment and we love him.’