Ant's New Battle To Save His Marriage

Ant's new battle to save his marriage: He's out of rehab and set to return to TV. But as his mother moves in to look after him, his wife of 11 years is nowhere to be seen....
He has been through eight long weeks of rehab for his drug addictions. Cloistered in an exclusive clinic in Central London — a stint costing about £50,000 — he has endured intense psychoanalysis in a bid to help him kick his habit.

He says it’s worked. Last weekend, Ant McPartlin smiled for the cameras, giving an extensive interview saying he was clean, sober — and ready to get back to work.

You might imagine that at such a crux, his wife of 11 years, Lisa, would be firmly at his side, ready to support him through this next, fragile stage of his life.

Well, not exactly. Ant himself has admitted that his mother, Christine, has moved into his house in Chiswick, West London, to look after him — while Lisa, a successful make-up artist for Strictly Come Dancing, is back doing long hours on set for the ‘pre-filming’ of the new series.

One can’t help but wonder why — especially considering the fact that Strictly does not start until autumn — she hasn’t chosen to remain at home at this critical moment. Surely, you might think, her bosses would understand if she wanted to take time off to be with her troubled husband.

For make no mistake, Ant may be out of rehab, but he’s very much still in recovery.

After what he calls two years of hell following a knee injury, during which he became addicted to Tramadol and morphine, washed down with alcohol — he says that he had been ‘necking’ pills ‘to the point of psychosis’ — Ant now faces a battle to get his life back on track.

His health, thankfully, appears to be on the mend. His career, too, seems certain to be unaffected, thanks to his many millions of fans who adore his cheeky-chappy persona and repartee with onscreen co-presenter and best friend Declan Donnelly.

Indeed, it’s likely that he’ll be even more loved by viewers after the honesty he has shown about his drug problem.

But he seems uncertain whether or not his marriage will endure. It is perhaps even more surprising that Lisa has chosen to go back to work when you consider that they have been apart throughout his entire stay in rehab. Due to strict rules laid down by the clinic, she did not see him for the duration of his eight-week stay. Phone calls were only permitted after the first month.

And instead of being tucked up in the marital home, on Monday night, for instance, Ant was 300 miles away in Newcastle, spending time with his mother Christine and sister Sarha in the smart suburb of Fenham.

He cut a conspicuous figure in his Range Rover on the neat road where mother and daughter live in neighbouring semi-detached houses.

ANT spent several hours there, before leaving again, looking solemn with his knee in a brace. Of his wife, there was no sign.

‘He is far too private to share what is going on, but it’s not looking good,’ said one in their social circle. ‘I was surprised that he didn’t come out of rehab and go away with Lisa for a holiday somewhere private.’

And Ant himself glumly conceded in his interview with the Sun on Sunday there is no guarantee the marriage will survive.

‘Time will tell,’ he said, adding: ‘It’s very personal, isn’t it?’

There were problems before he went into the clinic, with Ant admitting strains caused by their attempts to start a family.

He said: ‘I would just say it’s a very private matter. We’ve struggled. Like a lot of couples do. It’s very personal.’

Time is now, very sadly, against them in their attempts to conceive, as Ant is 41 and Lisa, 40.

Other issues have also conspired to drive a wedge between the couple. Lisa’s propensity for snoring and Ant’s insomnia, followed by his immobility due to his knee problems which started with a torn meniscus in 2014, have meant the couple have had separate bedrooms. While Ant was living downstairs in the house, combining opioids with alcohol, his wife would sleep upstairs.