ROYAL ANTCESTOR! STAR’S LINK TO ‘WHITE QUEEN’
ANT and Dec may be the undisputed kings of Saturday night television – but only one of them has a truly regal past.
While Ant McPartlin is descended from a Queen of England, the ancestors of his on-screen partner Declan Donnelly include a drunkard accused of deserting the British Army.
The TV presenters delved into their past for the two-part series Ant & Dec’s DNA Journey, which begins tonight on ITV.
Ant learns that his greatgrandfather Peter won the Military Medal for bravery at the Somme. But research carried out for this newspaper by genealogist Robert Barrett shows that his ancestry goes back to the ‘White Queen’ Elizabeth Woodville.
Edward IV married the beautiful commoner rather than make a political match in the 1400s – shocking a country in the midst of the War of the Roses.
Ant’s ancestors also include members of the Wedgwood dynasty, which produced the celebrated potter Josiah
Wedgwood. Josiah’s grandson was Charles Darwin. In more recent times the McPartlin lineage lost its lustre, and by the 19th Century one of Ant’s ancestors was a glass-polisher in Newcastle. Other members of his more recent family include George Edward Fender, a selfemployed tinsmith born in 1873, and his son-in-law Andrew Carr, a tugboat fireman.
In the show, Dec discovers that his great-grandfather James Donnelly, who fought in the Crimean War, was tried and jailed for ‘habitual drunkenness’ and was labelled a deserter.