TV chef James Martin has spoken openly about a time be became overwhelmed with emotion upon seeing his dad, Ian, in the audience at one of his live shows.
The Saturday Morning host bought his father a night at the Ritz and took him backstage at the Palladium in a surprising display of filial appreciation.
It represented something of a U-turn. In 2010, James was sure he wouldn’t speak on kind terms with his dad ever again.
But in life, change is the only constant. And James came around.
James Martin on moment he spotted once-estranged dad Ian at Palladium show
Celebrity chef James Martin got emotional upon seeing his dad Ian in the audience at one of his performances on stage at The London Palladium.
I held it all together throughout the show. But I welled up at the end. I completely lost it.
“I got him a night at the Ritz,” he told Candis magazine recently, per Devon Live. “I think he was worried he’d have to pick up the bill! And I took him backstage at the Palladium. He couldn’t believe his son’s name was in lights outside the theatre.
“When I stepped on stage that evening and stood on the cross below which Bruce Forsyth’s ashes are buried, I looked into the audience and the first face I saw was my dad’s. I held it all together throughout the show. But I welled up at the end. I completely lost it. The farmer’s kid had made it.”
It’s a moving story. But the reason it’s so remarkable is the tumultuous family history James and his dad share. It’s not too long ago that he vowed he’d never speak to Ian again…
TV chef’s legal battle with former stepmum and cuts to his autobiography
In the late 2000s, the Mail on Sunday serialised James Martin’s autobiography, Driven.
The serialised version of the book, per York Press, contained negative depictions of James’ former stepmum.
For example, it claimed that she was the “ugliest woman [James] had ever met” and said she had burned “every scrap” of his childhood, including baby pictures, school reports, toys, and clothes.
James’ stepmum is a well-known concert pianist. She was reportedly horrified by the claims in James’ book, and launched a legal appeal against him for libel.
She won, receiving an apology from the Saturday Kitchen presenter, his publishers HarperCollins, and the newspaper that originally serialised the book – Mail on Sunday.
The paper published a statement, now readable on the Mail Online website, saying James had “apologised to his father’s ex-wife over allegations in his autobiography”.
“Martin accepts it was untrue to say his father’s then-girlfriend cruelly destroyed childhood mementoes of him and his sister,” it continues.
The result was that HarperCollins pulped the first draft of the book and published an edited version instead.
When James Martin ‘realised’ he’d ‘never speak to his father again’
Years after the dust had settled on the legal battle, James said he’d accepted that his dad Ian would “never be a part of” his life.
“I spent 12 years trying to get on with him. You never knew what was around the corner. It was always something like getting divorced or remarried, or a new woman. It was just relentless,” he said, per Digital Spy.
“I thought, I’ve had enough of this. I’m just going to separate completely.”
He reportedly described the autobiography as his “biggest regret”, adding that the “only good thing” to come from it was “the realisation I would never speak to my father again”.
James Martin’s Saturday Morning is on Saturdays at 9.30am on ITV1.
Read more: James Martin defiant after show flooded with complaints: ‘We thought it was worth it’
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