Ant & Dec hinted at backstage tensions at Britain’s Got Talent during an interview on The One Show on Wednesday night.
The presenting duo – who have co-hosted BGT for its entire 14-year run – told a cryptic tale about how they met with show boss and head judge Simon Cowell once, to tell him they were thinking of quitting.
Dec, 44, recounted a time when they met Simon in Los Angeles for dinner, on a layover en route to filming I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in Australia.
‘Unhappy’: Ant & Dec hinted at backstage tensions at Britain’s Got Talent during an interview on The One Show on Wednesday night
‘We had been unhappy about various things backstage for a while. We felt like maybe the time was right to move on,’ he said. ‘Simon said, “I thought the latest series of BGT was amazing, don’t you?” And we said no not really.
‘We talked about leaving and he said, “you’re never leaving, don’t say that it’s never happening”. And he made some promises and things turned around after that.’
The pair are releasing a book about their 30 years in showbiz and spoke about some of the issues addressed in it – namely Ant’s personal struggles and how this could have jeopardised their partnership.
Ant, 44, said: ‘When you take time out you have a chance to look at your life, look at what’s making you happy, look at what you can change; and I was going through quite a lot at the time.
Close call: The presenting duo – who have co-hosted BGT for its entire 14-year run – told a cryptic tale about how they met with show boss and head judge Simon Cowell once, to tell him they were thinking of quitting
Story time: Dec, 44, recounted a time when they met Simon in Los Angeles for dinner, on a layover en route to filming I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in Australia
‘It was the best decision to take time out of work because that wasn’t the most important thing, I just had to get myself right and I did.
‘[Dec and I] spoke a lot as friends, forgetting the career, and we decided that the best thing to do would be to get happy, get well and come back when I was better and that’s what we did.’
Dec added that ‘it was an incredibly difficult time’, musing: ‘For me I just wanted to fulfill our obligations, I wanted to do the TV shows and keep them going and when the time was right I knew we would sit down together and decide what the future would hold for us both.
‘I didnt know if Ant was going to come back and say I want to be a pig farmer in Wales!
Dec explained: ‘We had been unhappy about various things backstage for a while. We felt like maybe the time was right to move on,’ he said. ‘Simon said, “I thought the latest series of BGT was amazing, don’t you?” And we said no not really’
All’s well that ends well! He finished by revealing Simon made them promises and convinced them to stay
Happy family: David Walliams, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon are pictured with Simon and Ant & Dec promoting BGT 2020
‘Both of us individually went away and thought about what the future could hold, would hold and what we wanted it to hold and ultimately at the end of it all we sat down together and were very honest with each other and we both realised that what made us happiest was being together and working together and that’s how we wanted to continue.’
Ant added: ‘When you do come back together you enjoy it more. The enforced break makes you think about the importance of things and we realised we just love being together.’
Ant stepped away from his TV commitments in 2017 when he was treated for an addiction to painkillers.
No! ‘We talked about leaving and he said, “you’re never leaving, don’t say that it’s never happening”. And he made some promises and things turned around after that,’ the boys recalled of Simon
Ups and downs: The pair are releasing a book about their 30 years in showbiz and spoke about some of the issues addressed in it – namely Ant’s personal struggles and how this could have jeopardised their partnership
But things took another turn for him in 2018 when he was involved in a road accident and arrested on suspicion of drink-driving, which he later pleaded guilty to, was banned for 20 months and fined Britain’s highest-ever penalty for drink-driving, £86,000.
As well as this, he was going through a divorce from wife of 11 years Lisa Armstrong.
He went into rehab and sat out I’m A Celebrity… that year, with Holly Willoughby stepping in to co-host with Dec.
His TV comeback came in January 2019, for BGT.
The One Show airs weekdays at 7PM on BBC One.