Ant McPartlin addresses 'really tough time' following drink-driving incident

Ant McPartlin of 'Ant and Dec' fame has said he's glad he's turned 50 as he's been much happier these past few years.

One half of British TV's most famous presenting duo, Ant pleaded guilty to drink-driving in 2018 after he crashed into two cars while intoxicated, and in a joint interview Dec told The Times he wanted 'to punch him and hug him at the same time'.

Ant, whose mum had been in the car with him when it crashed, was given a 20 month driving ban and fined £86,000, with him announcing he was taking a break from TV for a while afterwards.

Dec was joined on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! presenting duties by Holly Willoughby that year, though he and Ant still won the National Television Awards gong for TV presenter.

Looking back on it in his recent interview, Ant said he had got sober and been much happier in the years since then.

Ant and Dec have turned 50, how time flies (Simon Ackerman/WireImage)

"Turning 50 for me was great because my early forties was a really tough time," Ant told The Times of the milestone he'd marked on 18 November last year.

"These last few years, it’s the happiest I’ve been in a long, long time. What changes as you get older, especially being sober as well, for me, is the purpose.

"When you’re live on I’m a Celebrity in Australia and you’re in the moment with your best friend, there’s nowhere else I want to be, but as soon as we finish, we go back to our apartments by the beach and we’re with our families. That’s where we want to be right then."

It'll make Byker Grove fans feel very old indeed to know that Ant and Dec are now both 50 years old but that's time for you, and it sounds like in the past few years since getting sober Ant has been having a fine time.

Ant said the years he's been sober since his drink-driving crash in 2018 have been 'the happiest I've been in a long, long time' (Cameron Smith/Getty Images)

In addition to all their presenting work, the duo have finally got around to doing what basically any pair of men with access to microphones will do at some point and started a podcast.

It's called Hanging Out with Ant & Dec and it's coming in just a few days (22 January), but their first attempt to launch it hit something of a snag due to the imagery they used in their promotion.

Unfortunately for a podcast called Hanging Out, the promo they did showed the presenters hanging from a washing line and for a bit, you can just see their dangling feet suspended above ground.

Faced with criticism over the imagery and wording, the video was quickly deleted.

A spokesperson for Ant and Dec told LADbible: "We did not mean to cause any offence with this promo video, and we are sorry if it has upset anyone. We have taken on board the comments and have deleted the video."

Please drink responsibly. If you want to discuss any issues relating to alcohol in confidence, contact Drinkline on 0300 123 1110, 9am–8pm weekdays and 11am–4pm weekends for advice and support.