Britain’s Got Talent presenter and TV personality Amanda Holden is no stranger to controversy. While she may not welcome scandals exactly, she does not shy away from them.
From her highly-publicised extra-marital affair with Neil Morrissey to a run of risqué dresses worn to present BGT, here’s a brief rundown of those that have made headlines.
Amanda Holden scandals – five-week affair with Neil Morrissey
Amanda Holden and Les Dennis divorced in 2003, not long after her five-week affair with Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey hit the headlines.
Their highly-publicised romance took place in 2000. Amanda was 23 when she married Les in 1995.
After news of the affair broke, she said she “found the fall from grace incredibly hard to deal with. I can’t bear not to be liked.”
She later defended Neil Morrissey, whom she said “rightly or wrongly, got loads of stick”. “I feel like it was my fault,” she said. “I was the one who was married.”
A run of risqué dresses producing hundreds of Ofcom complaints
During the course of her role on Britain’s Got Talent, Amanda has offended hundreds, even thousands, of TV viewers with her risqué outfits.
In June 2017, for example, she wore a black Julien MacDonald gown worth £11,000. Ofcom received 633 complaints, making it the most complained about TV event of that year.
“It’s been called another national crisis,” The Sun quotes her as saying at the time. “But oh no, I will not be covered up.”
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In September 2020, she wore a Celia Kritharioti off-the-shoulder dress with a thigh-high split and deep V-neckline. It prompted 235 Ofcom complaints.
A month later, during the semi-final episode of Britain’s Got Talent, she wore a burgundy dress by Suzanne Neville. The episode received almost 900 Ofcom complaints, although only 136 were about her dress, apparently.
‘Woke’ remarks on Paul O’Grady following TV presenter’s death
In March 2023, Amanda received criticism for saying Paul O’Grady wasn’t woke during her show on Heart Radio.
Paul had just passed away, and Amanda was remarking on her friendship and working relationship with the veteran presenter.
“You know what I loved about him,” she said. “He was not woke in any way. He really had massive opinions on everything, which I love. Really funny, very witty, everything that came out of his mouth was brilliant.”
Fans took issue with it. Some questioned whether or not Amanda understood the meaning of the word “woke”. Others described him as the “wokest of woke”.
None of those lambasting Amanda appear to have shown any appreciation for the fact that she knew him in person, whereas fans only ever saw and heard his on-air persona.
Amanda Holden scandals – warning from BBC bosses over QVC promotional video
In February 2025, the BBC issued Amanda – who appears with Alan Carr on Italian Job – with a warning for appearing in a promotional video for QVC. The issue was that the BBC has stringent policies that disallow hired talent from endorsing products in a way that suggests the BBC is behind it.
“Actors and artists who perform in BBC output should not appear in promotional work,” the regulations state. This includes “advertisements, in a way which mimics or replicates their on-air roles for the BBC”.
Hardly a scandal, but worth putting on the list!
BGT is on Saturday night (February 22) on ITV1 at 7pm.
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