Get out of here Ant ’n’ Dec... Phil and Fearne host Prince’s awards

WHEN Ant McPartlin was replaced by Holly Willoughby as an I’m A Celebr ity host, after his drugs and drinkdriving shame, ITV’s viewing figures shot up.

Now, Ant faces a similar humiliation as he has, I can disclose, been supplanted as co-host of the awards ceremony for royal charity The Prince’s Trust by another spirited female television personality, Fearne Cotton.

Ant and his pint-sized partner, Declan Donnelly, had hosted the ceremony for Prince Charles’s organisation for the past six years.

Dec, whose place will be taken at the Celebrate Success Awards next week by Phillip Schofield, is said to be devastated.

‘They both treasure their royal connections, but Dec is particularly disappointed not to be hosting the awards show,’ a source tells me. ‘He’s an ardent royalist and really values his friendship with the Prince of Wales.’

Ant and Dec had become Charles’s court jesters and were chosen to present an admiring documentary about the Prince in 2016, which included a deferential interview. At that year’s awards ceremony, Charles joked: ‘What would we do without Dant and Ec? They did this film about The Prince’s Trust, though I think the subsidiary title should have been: “I’m a member of the Royal Family, get me out of here!”’ The charity insists the pair’s absence is not because of Ant’s woes. ‘The Prince’s Trust invited Ant and Dec to host the Prince’s Trust Awards,’ says a spokesman. ‘However, due to the event taking place a week later than last year, this year’s date unfortunately clashed with commitments they already had in place.’ The pair have been given the consolation prize of an appearance on a video message to be played at the Royal Palladium.