ANT McPartlin has finally revealed how his reconciliation with estranged dad Raymond has gone after 32 years apart.
The TV star was just ten-years-old when his dad walked out on his family but has admitted that “life’s too short” to continue not speaking.
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“My dad left the family when I was about 10 and I’ve seen him sporadically over the years,” Ant, 43, says during his new ITV documentary Ant & Dec’s DNA Journey.
“I haven’t seen him for a long while now. We didn’t speak for quite a while… but last year we started texting each other and I spoke to him on the phone for my birthday, which was lovely.
“To be fair, life is too short. There is no point holding grudges or anything like that. You get to that age… I turned 40 and I just thought let’s stop messing about, let’s get in touch because you never know what’s going to happen.”
The two have been estranged since 1985, but made amends after Ant reached out during his time away from the spotlight as he fought addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.
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Ant revealed he would be getting back in touch with Raymond earlier this year.
“My dad and I didn’t speak for a long time, but we’re talking again now, which is great,” he said in a candid interview with Guardian’s Weekend magazine.
When asked what his dad was like he said: “He’s good, he’s funny. I’m slowly getting to know him again.
“He’s a proud man, a worker, a plumber. I’m thrilled that I’m back in touch.”
Ray, 64, lives a very different life to his showbiz son.
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He is living in a two-bedroom housing association flat in North Fenham, Tyneside, with his long-term partner Sheila Taylor.
He used to work as a publican while married to Ant’s mum Christine Woodhall before walking out in 1985.
As a youngster, Ant helped care for his two younger sisters Sahra and Emma at their council house as Christine held down three jobs to make ends meet.
Ant and his mum have remained close all his life, with Christine moving in to his rented west London pad when he split from Lisa Armstrong in January 2018.
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Meanwhile, Declan Donnelly has admitted he was left furious after Ant kept his addiction nightmare a secret from him.
The telly favourite, 44, opened up about the effect Ant’s recent woes had on their friendship – and says he wishes his best pal had come to him.
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Dec made his admission on the duo’s ITV documentary Ant & Dec’s DNA Journey.
He said: “It has been a tough couple of years and it has tested the bond we have shared since we were 13.
“I was incredibly angry at the start, so angry. Disappointed that he didn’t ever come to me and say ‘I am struggling, I need you’ because that is what I would do if the shoe was on the other foot.
“And he never came to me and that hurt me a lot.
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“There was a point where I thought that that was it. There were times where I wasn’t sure it was going to survive.
“Times where you didn’t know it needed to survive or you wanted it to survive.
“All the while he was away I wasn’t sure where his head was at or if he was going to say ‘none of this is for me’.
“I didn’t know what he wanted to do and for the first time in 30 years I had to think about what I was going to do and if I was going to go out on my own.
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“The thought of that filled me with fear.”
He returned to rehab for further treatment and said he would take a break from TV presenting.
The presenter missed last year’s I’m a Celebrity…Get me Out of Here! and was replaced by stand-in Holly Willoughby as he continued his recovery.
He returned to work in January as he reunited with Dec for Britain’s Got Talent auditions and is now ready for his return to the jungle for I’m a Celeb.
