Ant McPartlin is said to be feeling downcast about leaving his young son at home to go Down Under in order to host I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
The 48-year-old presenter has been hosting the long-running ITV reality show since it began in 2002 - with the exception of the 2018 season when he was suspended for a year due to a shocking drink driving incident. Ant and his long-time collaborator Declan Donnelly, 49, stunned fans when they quit their weekend show Saturday Night Takeaway after 20 years on the air.
At the time, Ant said he was quitting the show in order to spend more time with his family - and now a report has suggested he is feeling "sad" about having to leave his infant son at home while he spends time in Australia for I'm A Celeb hosting duties. The star has been married to wife Anne-Marie Corbett since 2021 and earlier this year they welcomed their first child together.
Taking to social media at the time, proud dad Ant wrote: “Welcome to the family, Wilder Patrick Mcpartlin. Born, 14/05/24 at 8.54 am. Baby is beautiful, Mummy’s a legend, Sisters are over the moon. Dad’s a mess!” He shared the news alongside a snap of the baby cuddling up to him.
On Wednesday, a new report suggested Ant is feeling hugely homesick in Australia after being forced to leave Anne-Marie and Wilder behind. A source told OK! Magazine: “Ant is feeling really emotional about being so far away from Anne-Marie and Wilder. It's the longest he has left them for and it's going to be so difficult."
Last year, Ant and his co-star Declan Donnelly shocked fans when they announced the 2024 season of Saturday Night Takeaway would be their last as they wanted to scale back the amount of work they did to spend more time with their families. Dropping their bombshell news in an Instagram post, Ant began: “We love making Saturday Night Takeaway, but reaching the milestone of 20 series seemed like the perfect time to pause for a little while and catch our breath."
Dec then said: “We still have a momentous 20th series to look forward to first so we will do our best to go out (for now) with a bang in 2024.” Ant continued: “Next year in 2024 it will be the 20th series of Saturday Night Takeaway and we’ve got some very special look-backs planned, as well as some very exciting new items." And Dec added: “And we’ve also decided that our 20th series next year will be our last one for a little while. The show takes up such a lot of our year, we just feel we need a little bit of a breather, and that the show is going to take a little bit of a rest.”
In a subsequent interview with Fault magazine, Ant hinted he wanted to spend more time with his family, telling the publication: "On a more personal level, part of the reason we're pausing Takeaway is we need a break ourselves, and we need to spend some time with our family… We've both got children that we need to spend time with for a little bit. We need time to think and, and time to step back and look at the bigger picture and just see where we are now."
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