Ant Middleton Explains Why He Doesn't Regret Killing People

Ant Middleton has explained why he doesn't regret killing people during his time in the military. Watch here:

The TV personality - who was dropped from SAS: Who Dares Wins earlier this year - joined the army when he was 16, before enlisting with the Royal Marines in 2005 and joining the Special Boat Service in 2008, where he served for four years as a sniper and point man (the first soldier on a patrol).

Across the course of numerous tours, the 41-year-old took 'a lot of lives' - but he doesn't have any regrets.

Speaking on Scandinavian talk show Skavlan back in 2019, he said: "What people must remember is that my job is to conserve life, is to save life.

"Only take life when there's a level of evil that's been surpassed, or I'm in immediate threat or my pals are in immediate danger to life.

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"But what I do remember is being stood there, and I could have taken a shot. And every time, you know, it just wasn't right, and I took my finger off the trigger. Those are the times that I do remember."

Asked whether - as a dad of five - he ever thought about the fact he'd killed people who were someone's father, he replied: "Not at all. Like I said, there's good and there's evil in this world.

"I'm a good man, I know that, and if you surpass a certain threshold of evil, then you don't deserve to be walking this planet.

"That's how I saw it. I never saw it as, it was never personal.

"Listen, it's one of those - if you live by the sword, then you must expect to die by the sword. You know, it's just again, taking extreme ownership of yourself, holding yourself accountable."

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After leaving the military, Middleton thought slotting into normal society would be a breeze, but he found himself behind bars after being convicted of the unlawful wounding of one police officer and common assault upon a second in 2013.

He recalled: "I thought, you know, if I can train myself to be the best soldier in the world, I can train myself to be the best civilian in the world.

"But it didn't end up like that, you know, six months after leaving, I ended up in an altercation with the law and I ended up serving four months in prison.

"I got into a nightclub altercation and I ended up having a fight with a police officer, I was intoxicated, there was a clash of authority.

"Basically, I reflected in prison about the time that I spent in the military and what I needed to do to fit into society. And, you know, there's not any going on courses or becoming whatever it may be, it's just retuning your mind.

"So, all you have to do is you just have to retune your mind, and that's exactly what I done [sic]. I made a mistake, put my hands up, done [sic] my punishment. Job done, move on."

Topics: army, Celebrity, Interesting

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey