ANT’S JUNGLE WARFARE
A £63m divorce fight. Disquiet over his oh-so speedy return after a drunken smash. The shadows of his pill addictions... as a new I’m A Celebrity starts tomorrow, the far from wholesome picture behind the cheeky persona millions love
LIFE is glorious in Kingscliff, New South Wales — miles of beautiful beaches, friendly oceanside cafes, and a string of spa hotels.
Yet there is something rather haunted about Ant McPartlin, a familiar face who is calling the town a temporary home.
He arrived in Australia this week in advance of I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here! which starts on Sunday night.
On Monday, he will be celebrating his 44th birthday with ‘Dec’ Donnelly, his best friend, and his leggy blonde girlfriend Anne-Marie Corbett, known as ‘Amzie’.
Also there will be Anne-Marie’s two daughters by her previous marriage who have been given permission to skip a modest amount of school to join him Down Under. So far, so happy families.
It’s a far cry from last year’s show when, eight months after causing a three-car crash while drunk at the wheel, Ant was forced to step aside to make way for Holly Willoughby who proved a highly successful stand-in jungle partner for Dec.
So popular was chirpy Holly that Ant, wrestling with demons of alcohol and drug addiction plus the toxic fall-out of his split from wife Lisa, couldn’t bear to watch and took himself off on holiday to get away from it all. But he didn’t lie low for long.
Indeed, few in the TV industry can recall a speedier — or more controversial — TV comeback. The mission to rehabilitate the disgraced half of one of the country’s bestloved double acts began with Ant’s return to Britain’s Got Talent earlier this year.
While the opening episode largely ignored his comeback with a ‘business as usual’ air to the show, reports suggest that, offscreen, his return on the first day of auditions was an emotional affair.
Co-presenter Dec introduced him to the stage at the London Palladium, telling the audience: ‘We’ve got the judges back, the golden buzzer is back, and someone else is back. My co-host for the series, would you please welcome . . . Mr Ant McPartlin.”
Receiving a standing ovation from all four judges and applause from the crowd, Ant replied: ‘Thank you very much, what a warm welcome. What a great show to come back to, I’m thrilled, I’m over the moon. Shall we move on before I cry?’
There is certainly a concerted effort to make Ant an acceptable face of television once again.
Last weekend saw the charm offensive continue with a documentary about Ant’s family history, showing somewhat inconclusively that Ant and Dec are related by a distant Viking ancestor. After all, if the British public are still nursing doubts about Ant’s suitability for family viewing, what better than to link him genetically to the more wholesome Dec? HIS
CO- STAR said on camera that Ant ‘meant the world’ to him and he was never happier than when they were together.
‘He is like a part of me,’ said Dec, tearfully. ‘It would be like losing a limb if I lost him from my life.’
It wasn’t exactly a subtle way of reinforcing the money- spinning award-winning double act which started on the kids’ TV drama Byker Grove in 1989.
Nor was the even more questionable announcement that their production company would be making a new BBC show exploring the world of street car racing. Although the duo are not fronting the show, it’s hardly the most appropriate pairing.
Indeed Ant’s comeback, 20 months after a crash when, drunk, he overtook on a bend and went head-on into another car, appears to brook no delay or resistance.
Worth £63 million, and having been paid his £10 million golden handcuffs deal by ITV throughout his troubled period, his management team has been utterly determined to reunite him with Dec.
Latest accounts from Ant’s company Teecourt suggest he has £21 million in equity in that firm, and a further £4.4 million in Hurley Productions, the company named after his beloved Labrador. His fortune has continued to swell even during his ‘off’ period.
The money may still be rolling in, but is his popularity forever damaged? Former fans still ask what remorse he has shown, as distinct from self-pity. Some say they don’t want to see him on TV, cracking jokes without a care.
One senior TV executive told me this week: ‘The trouble for me is that you have Ant popping up on telly saying, “I nearly lost everything” and I just think: “No Ant, you nearly killed someone.” ’
So what of Ant? He appears — with his Alcoholics Anonymous tattoos and ready displays of tearful emotion — to be feeling the strain.
I’m told he depends on girlfriend Anne-Marie so much that he didn’t think he could ‘get through’ a month away from her. Once his wife Lisa’s PA, then his assistant, she is now his lover, ‘sober coach’ (after his three rehabs and two periods away from the public eye) and the woman he says has made him happy — at last.
The romance which appears to be the key to Ant’s comeback entered a new phase this spring when they quietly started living together in London.
She left the modest house in New Malden, South London, which she used to share with husband Scott, and moved in with Ant to a £6 million mansion in Wimbledon.
A source close to Anne-Marie’s relatives said: ‘The family are happy for Anne-Marie — Ant treats her very well and is great with the girls. They are very much in love.’ ANNE
MARIE’S roots — like Ant and Dec’s — lie in Ireland and her widowed mother Anne recently returned to live in Carrickon-Suir, in the south- east of the island. Ant and Anne-Marie have quietly spent time visiting her.
Why, then, does Ant still have that hollow- eyed, jittery demeanour? The answer, it seems, lies back in London, where his ex-wife Lisa is playing her hand in their divorce with ruthless aplomb.
She has so far declined all offers of a universal financial settlement from his lawyers, and they have emerged from one round of mediation without agreement. She’s now been asked to go through a second round of negotiations.
However, multiple sources close to Lisa say that she isn’t interested at all in such a settlement.
Instead she is waiting with relish to have her day in court — an unusual outcome as most divorces are settled out of court.
All the indications are that this might happen at the High Court next March, and Lisa will then get to let loose any skeletons that may be rattling in the marital closet.
A friend says: ‘It is not about the money, she is not a materialistic person. It is all about his appalling behaviour to her.’ She feels aggrieved that those whom she considered her closest friends, like Dec and his wife Ali, have simply walked away. And her contract as a make-up artist on Britain’s Got Talent was not renewed.
Ant’s sole contact with her is via legal letters and the view from Lisa’s side is that he bombards her with them in a way which verges on bullying. What will Lisa say in
court? One friend says she wants nts to tell how she kept him alive and on screen, despite a raging drug habit for the final three years of their marriage.
He has admitted to becoming addicted to a cocktail of prescription drugs including OxyContin, tramadol, morphine, temazepam and diazepam following a botched knee operation.
‘From my understanding although they both always loved to booze, he was the one with the drug problems alone and she had to deal with all of that for years,’ said a friend. By all accounts, Lisa also has thin things to say on the subject of Anne-Marie. As she raged on Twitter when the romance emerged: ‘And to think she was my friend! My friend and OUR PA who I let into OUR home.’
The only progress in the divorce so far is over the grounds for it, which have been agreed, which has allowed the declaration of a decree nisi. Ant at first wanted to say that Lisa’s unreasonable behaviour had caused the end of the marriage.
He said his wife had brought alcohol into the house to drink herself while he was struggling to stay clean and sober.
Lisa thought she would cite Ant’s unreasonable behaviour in being addicted to pills as the reason for marital breakdown. However last August he agreed she could cite his unreasonable behaviour as adultery with Anne-Marie as he and Lisa were technically still married when the romance started.
There remain three unresolved issues in the divorce: money, custody of their Labrador, Hurley, and the signing of a non- disclosure agreement or NDA.
With a £63 million fortune, and considering they were married in 2006, both sides have a 50-50 split in mind. Lisa has denied reports that she has turned down more than 50 per cent.
His friends say that he has made her a ‘ very generous offer’ which seems to be around 50-50, plus the £6 million house in Chiswick.
Lisa wishes to see him in court first and is happy to let a judge decide. A friend cautions: ‘People have underestimated Lisa, but she is the queen of saying: “No way.” Over the past two years, as this has gone on and on, she has realised she’s in a really strong position.
‘She has the house, she has her money from being a make-up artist. She doesn’t need to settle, she can be a thorn in his side. She knows she is a stronger person than him. He lives in dread of seeing her in the corridor of a TV studio one day, but she would relish it.’
Another pal said of Lisa, who is the lead make-up artist on Strictly Come Dancing: ‘ She works like a dog, she always has. She just loves what she does and she’s very good at it and very successful. In her little world, and it is a little world, she is at the top of the tree.
‘She could easily have sat back and done nothing while she was married to Ant, but she always had the work ethic and wanted to earn her own money.’
There have been ‘ hundreds’ of legal letters, with Ant’s bill said to stand at around £1.5 million.
One spat involved Lisa refusing to have all the jewellery which Ant had given her sent away for valuation so it could be divided as part of their common property.
The most important piece of ‘common property’ is six-year-old Hurley. Ant dotes on the dog, and claims the animal is a key to his mental wellbeing. Lisa, though, also adores the pooch.
At present, custody is split 50-50, each side has him for a week at a time. Neither seems in the mood to compromise.
The final piece of the puzzle is the non-disclosure agreement. Lisa is refusing to sign one, and this is what is holding up any deal as Ant will not agree to the financial settlement without one.
These are common in the celebrity world — any staff member can expect to be asked to sign one, and divorcing spouses can also expect to be gagged in this way.
BUT
THE most curious thing is that, although Lisa is fighting tooth and nail not to sign an NDA and wishes to have her say in court about Ant’s behaviour, I’m told she has no intention of doing a ‘tell all’ book about their marriage.
A friend said: ‘ She has always been discreet about him to the point where people will often have their make-up done by her and not be aware of the connection. The point is that she just doesn’t want to give him the power over her.’
She is said to have promised her late father Derek that she would stand firm and have her say.
A source said: ‘ She isn’t interested in how much money she gets. She told Derek on his death bed earlier this year that she would stand strong and she’s not about to go back on her word.
‘She won’t sign an NDA. As far as she’s concerned, Ant is welcome to his money. She’s appalled at the way she has been treated since they split up, by people she loved, trusted and called friends. Ant is underestimating her. She’s not scared any more.
‘She is more determined than ever not to fold and to get what’s hers. She doesn’t want to be the one to ruin his career, but enough is enough.’
Little wonder that if this most rancorous of divorces does come to court, Ant McPartlin would be forgiven for thinking: ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!’