Are Ant & Dec the same person?

THEY describe themselves as ‘just two ordinary lads from the west end of Newcastle’, but with a new deal from ITV worth £30million over three years about to be signed, plus matching OBEs in the Queen’s Birthday Honours this June, it’s fair to say that they are rather more than that.

Anthony Mcpartlin and Declan Donnelly, both 40, are by any standard a phenomenon.

Once a couple of child actors who thought themselves fortunate to earn £100 a day, they now stand at the pinnacle of British light entertainment, each with a fortune said to stand at £60 million.

They have won best entertainment performance at the National Television Awards 15 times in a row, and have 13 Baftas — so far.

ubiquitous on saturday night thanks to Britain’s got Talent, saturday Night Takeaway and I’m A Celebrity, they have suffered few reverses — the film Alien Autopsy, the quiz show Red Or Black and the American game show Wanna Bet being their only flops.

Just as remarkable is that they have stuck together through it all, seemingly more than happy with an equal share of the limelight and the money.

so just how joined at the hip are they? This is the amazing story of their shared empire and identikit lives — from matching (very expensive) suits, watches, and sports cars to their copycat houses just three doors apart . . .

THE EMPIRE

ACCOuNTs published earlier this year reveal that, over the year to June 2015, the likeable geordie pair jointly earned £7.1 million — equivalent to a staggering £19,500 a day.

Declan Donnelly’s company Deecourt, set up in 2006, generated £3.38 million, taking his funds to £12.4million, and meaning he took home around £65,000 a week.

Anthony Mcpartlin made £3.3 million from his company Teecourt, also set up in 2006, taking his total shareholder funds to £12.3 million. They’ve also disclosed profits of £376,000 in a joint venture called Hurley promotions, and made up to £15million last year by selling the rights to saturday Night Takeaway to the u.s.

They will not be appearing on screen in the American version.

Throughout their career, all their earnings have been split straight down the middle. They have the same agents, at James grant Management. ITV has offered them a £30million threeyear golden handcuffs contract to stay with the network, and they spent a few months considering whether to say yes.

It will give them £5million a year each, and once they have signed, it will mean that they have been wedded to the network for a total of 18 years.

‘We are not on the dotted line yet, but we want to stay and they want us to stay,’ Dec said this week. ‘It will have to be signed before we go to Oz [to host I’m A Celebrity] because then we will be at the end of the year and we are fairly close.’

VROOM VROOM

THREE years ago, they went out and bought themselves low-slung black supercars. Dec treated himself to a £150,000 Ferrari California, capable of 190mph.

Ant bought an Aston Martin Vantage, which does over 200mph and cost £136,000. He also picked up a Range Rover for his wife. Dec’s second car is a Mercedes.

Dec said: ‘It’s the first time we’ve had really flashy cars. They roar.’

Ant complained: ‘Mine doesn’t. I can’t get in it. It’s so high-tech I can’t even open the door.’

Ant was banned from driving for 30 days 13 years ago after being caught doing 127mph in an Audi TT on a stretch of the M1. He said: ‘It was silly and I have learned my lesson.’

SUITED AND BOOTED

JusT as they always stand the same way — with Ant on the left of the screen and Dec on the right (Dec is also ‘closer to the deck’; that is, the shorter of the two by 2in) — so they have long had a habit of wearing identical suits on screen.

Both of them were fans of super-fashionable savile Row designer Nick Hart — and they invested money in his label spencer Hart.

However, spencer Hart Retail went into liquidation in 2014 after racking up £1.25 million in debts, leaving each of them out of pocket. They had invested £90,000 each in the label.

Now they wear a lot of Tom Ford — both wore bright blue Tom Ford suits at Dec’s wedding in August last year.

They have also been seen in his Windowpane Check, which starts at £2,650 off the peg — and with Dec only 5ft 6in, their suits will have to be made to measure.

SMILE PLEASE

IN spRINg 2015, both suddenly had noticeably whiter teeth, with Ant in particular seeming to have larger, whiter gnashers than before — possibly a sign of veneers. Whoever the dentist was, they are keeping quiet — but clearly took care of them both at the same time as a job lot.

They get their hair done at the same salon — of course — by Lino Carbosiero MBE, at Daniel galvin in London’s Mayfair. Carbosiero also looked after David Cameron’s locks while he was prime Minister.

some wicked sorts assert that Ant, whose hair has been receding for a decade, has latterly had a ‘subtle and successful’ hair transplant.

He successfully diverted attention from his hair by growing a beard earlier this year. The question is — will Dec follow suit?

LAGER LOUTS

THE pair love drinking, and shared numerous stories about ‘getting mortal’ in their joint autobiography Ooh What A Lovely pair.

Their one and only serious argument came in drink, and neither is too sure to this day what provoked it.

During their days as slightly feeble boy band pJ & Duncan, they flew to the spanish resort of Torremolinos to perform for gMTV, got drunk, ate a full English breakfast at midnight, drank some more and then, for a reason neither of them can remember, Ant punched Dec in a lift and Dec knocked Ant’s hat off in retaliation.

Both will drink champagne, but love beer, particularly lager. Once a week they will meet at their local pub to have four pints and brainstorm for new ideas.

After the news broke of their OBE, they posted a picture online of the two of them in a bar, drinking lager and pulling faces. usually once a week they will go out somewhere fancy with their wives for a nice dinner — such as scott’s in Mayfair.

Ant smokes — Regal cigarettes — but Dec has given up. His father, Alphonsus, died of cancer in 2011.

Both seemed notably over-refreshed after the Baftas last year, with Ant saying that they had stayed up until 5.30am drinking. He had said from the stage: ‘This is amazing, thanks girls, thanks very much for your support and love — let’s go and get p **** d!’

Drink may also have played a part in the torrid night in 2003 when Dec cheated on his girlfriend of ten years, actress Clare Buckfield, with an exotic dancer whom he had met in secrets club in Hammersmith, West London. He and Buckfield split up soon afterwards.

THIS SPORTING LIFE

BOTH And and Dec love going to Royal Ascot for a flutter, and are spotted there every June.

There is also a shared love of golf, with the boys being members at Wimbledon park golf Club. Ant was pictured swigging from a tin of lager on his way around the famous stoke park golf Club, in Buckinghashire, recently and the pair flew to Augusta to watch the Masters in 2012.

Boys’ trips to sporting events, such as the European Championship earlier this summer, are a favourite pastime — despite the fact they spend most of the year together.

They say that they have never spent more than a fortnight without seeing each other.

TAXING PROBLEMS

IT EMERgED in 2014 that Ant and Dec were among wealthy investors who had sought to minimise tax by investing in films — in a scheme being cracked down on by the taxman.

The stars were among 1,300 who had invested in schemes offered by Ingenious Media that HMRC deems allowed them to avoid tax, in one instance by permitting them to take advantage of film tax relief.

under controversial rules implemented by the Treasury, investors were told they had to pay back the tax they are alleged to have avoided — possibly with interest — even before a decision had been made on their case. A tax tribunal ruled in the taxman’s favour last month. Although the

schemes were deemed legal, the tax saved had to be repaid.

THE ROYAL WE

DEC said that the news of their matching OBEs left them ‘thrilled, honoured and humbled. Not to mention very shocked!’

Ant added: ‘Me and the little fella thank you so much.’

They have long been ambassadors for the Prince’s Trust and presented the documentary When Ant And Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years Of The Prince’s Trust in 2015. Ant said it was clear Charles had struggled to decipher his accent. ‘I’d ask him a question and he would just smile,’ he says. ‘Then Dec would ask the same question and get a full answer.’

Dec found himself ‘getting a bit over-familiar and grabbing His Royal Highness and slapping him on the back a bit — I had to keep stopping myself.’ The pair and their wives spent a weekend with Charles and Camilla at Dumfries House, their Scottish residence.

Dec said: ‘We dropped in to see our families on the way up. They didn’t believe we were staying with Prince Charles, and that we were just two doors down from his bedroom. In fact, they still don’t believe us.’

Afterwards the Prince gave them matching hip flasks, and sent Dec a set of his watercolour portraits made up into place mats as a wedding present.

Same street. Same tailor. Same watch. Same crimper. Same holidays. As they share a new £30m deal ...