Having split with his wife last year, Paddy McGuinness has opened up for the first time about the break-up.
The presenter, 49, says he felt ‘homesick’ being away from his family.
Paddy McGuinness: filming away from home
Paddy travelled to South Africa’s Eastern Cape for Channel 4’s Tempting Fortune, and explained how he tried to keep in touch with Christine McGuinness and their three children.
“I’ve always had a sort of rule that I stick by where I never do more than nine days anywhere. I think naturally you get homesick,” he explained to The Sun.
Paddy added that, despite Take Me Out being filmed in the UK, it was the show that took him away from home the longest.
“If I have to work away, I’ve got a phone,” he says. “If you work in a job where you might be away for a couple of days a week, or whatever it is, in this day and age it’s a small world because you’ve got Zoom and phones and Whatsapps and everything else.”
I think naturally you get homesick.
He compared his experience to that of the contestants on Tempting Fortune, who had no contact with their loved ones during filming: “That’s when the chips are really down.”
How are Paddy and Christine co-parenting?
Paddy and Christine announced their split in summer last year. They are co-parenting their three children: nine-year-old twins, Leo and Penelope, and daughter Felicity, seven.
The pair still live together, and want to keep the news of the split from the children, who all have autism.
Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine, Christine said: “I don’t want anything to affect them. We’ll always be family, no matter what. We’re living in a nice happy home.”
The pair went their separate ways after 11 years together.
Read more: Christine McGuinness reveals tragic reason she stayed with Paddy until she did
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