Ant McPartlin has revealed his presenting partner Declan Donnelly was “angry” with him following his drink-driving conviction.
The 43-year-old television host took almost a year off work when he checked into rehab after pleading guilty to drink-driving following a car crash in March last year.
And he has now admitted his actions caused “tensions” with his presenting partner Dec, which he believes were completely “justified”.
Read more: Ant McPartlin gets emotional on BGT stage as he returns with Dec Donnelly
Speaking to The Sun, Ant said: “I saw Dec the day after the crash and we didn’t even speak work. It wasn’t about that. It was about, ‘How are you?’ I said: ‘I’m not right.’ You know, mentally I wasn’t in a good place.
“We’re friends first and foremost. And we’re friends from the age of 13. But of course there’s going to be tensions there. Because this is not just getting [expletive] and making a fool of yourself at the office Christmas party – this is drink driving.”
He added: “He’s angry, of course he’s angry. But it’s justified and I understood it. Underneath all of that is love and still is love. And that’s what we talked about more than anything.”
Ant left Dec to present their shows, including Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Britain’s Got Talent, and I’m A Celebrity – for which he had help from Holly Willoughby – on his own, but Ant believes it was “absolutely the correct decision” for the programmes to continue without him.
After Ant stepped down from his TV commitments, Dec released a statement saying ITV felt like they “owed it to the audience” to complete SNT.
He said: “Whilst I never thought I’d be in this position, after much discussion and careful consideration we’ve decided that the remaining two shows of this series of Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead.”
“We made a promise to take hundreds of deserving winners to Florida to watch the series finale, and we will honour that.
“Everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team feels we owe it to the audience to complete the series.”
#BGT 2019.
Audition day 1.
The boys are back in town! pic.twitter.com/3SzTU5uLQH— antanddec (@antanddec) 18 January 2019
Read more: Fans get emotional as Ant McPartlin FINALLY tweets ahead of his TV comeback
The duo reunited last week to begin filming for this year’s series of Britain’s Got Talent.
Sharing a selfie to their shared Twitter account, the pair wrote: “#BGT 2019. Audition day 1. The boys are back in town!”
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