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Amanda Holden made a brutal admission about Les Dennis before she married him.
The BGT judge, 54, tied the knot with the comedian, 71, in 1995 after they met on a stage show production of The Sound of Music at Bournemouth's Pavilion Theatre.
Holden, however, had a five-week affair with Men Behaving Badly actor Neil Morrissey, 62, which led to the couple splitting up in 2000.
They officially separated in 2002 and divorced a year later after Holden called it the ‘worst time of her life’.
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In her 2013 autobiography No Holding Back, the mum-of-two said the pair were opposites from the get-go.
When they first met, she thought he was 'sad', 'quiet' and 'troubled' and she 'instinctively wanted to help'.
"At first he thought I was loud, overconfident and a bit brash, which was probably true," Holden said.
"I thought he was a bit of a miserable sod."
The pair struck up a friendship on their days off and often went bowling together.
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"I don't think I consciously fancied him at this stage," she recalled.
After they got married, it emerged that Holden was having an affair with her Happy Birthday Shakespeare co-star Morrissey.
Speaking to the Express in 2009, she said: “I found the fall from grace incredibly hard to deal with.
“I can’t bear not to be liked. Then I had an affair and overnight turned into this awful person.
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“There are no hard feelings with Les. I wish him the best but we’ve both moved on.”
Holden also told the Daily Mail: "I brought it on myself, I appreciate that, but nothing will ever be as bad again. It was a very dark time. It got to the point where I felt I could hardly breathe.
"Les proved to be my saviour. Ironically. So the person I'd hurt the most in the world was the one who was there for me."
Morrissey apologised about the affair during a 2014 interview on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories.
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He said: "I feel sorry for how the situation was dealt with and I feel sorry for how emotional Les seemed to become.
"It was very difficult for him and for that I'm sorry."
When Morgan asked him if he'd ever apologised to Dennis, he replied: "No, I didn't. I'm not positive over what there is to apologise about. I don't know what the whole situation was, to be perfectly fair to everybody."
Holden married her second husband, Chris Hughes in 2008, and the couple share two children together.
Topics: Amanda Holden, Celebrity, Sex and Relationships
Anish Vij