TV presenter Ant McPartlin has experienced plenty of upheaval in the last two years.
The I’m A Celebrity and Britain’s Got Talent star, 43, has been through the end of a marriage as well as a battle with addiction and stint in rehab.
But now Ant has opened up about another change in his life: he’s reunited with his dad after 32 years apart.
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Ant was 10-years-old when his dad, Raymond, walked out on him, his mum and his two younger sisters.
But Ant reveals in the forthcoming two-part ITV documentary series – Ant & Dec’s DNA Journey – that he had reached out to him during his time in rehab.
“My dad left the family when I was about 10 and I’ve seen him sporadically over the years,” he says during the show.
“I haven’t seen him for a long while now. We didn’t speak for quite a while… but last year we started texting each other and I spoke to him on the phone for my birthday, which was lovely.
“To be fair, life is too short. There is no point holding grudges or anything like that. You get to that age… I turned 40 and I just thought let’s stop messing about, let’s get in touch because you never know what’s going to happen.”
Ant took the majority of last year off TV following his drink-driving arrest which happened back in early 2018.
He stepped down from filming commitments, missing the last few shows of Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and that year’s I’m A Celebrity.
He spent some time in rehab recovering from alcohol issues as well as his addiction to painkillers.
His long-standing partner, Dec Donnelly, admitted during the ITV show that times had been tough for the pair.
Dec said: “It has been a tough couple of years and it has tested the bond we have shared since we were 13 years old.
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“I was incredibly angry at the start, so angry. Disappointed that he didn’t ever come to me and say ‘I am struggling, I need you’ because that is what I would do if the shoe was on the other foot. And he never came to me and that hurt me a lot.”
Dec was then asked if he thought he might lose Ant, and the TV star admitted he was “filled with fear” at the thought of no longer having his pal by his side.
Ant & Dec’s DNA Journey airs on Sunday, November 10, and Monday, November 11, at 9pm on ITV.
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