At 41 he had the world at his feet. A happily married father of three young children with his loving wife, Ellie. A £2.8 million mansion and earnings of £190,000 a year.
Crikey, he was even tipped to replace Gary Lineker as the Match Of The Day anchor.
Life couldn’t get any sweeter, so why on earth did he sour it all?
Jermaine Jenas, Match Of The Day pundit and presenter of family friendly The One Show, has been summarily sacked by the BBC after alleged ‘inappropriate behaviour’ sending unsolicited texts to a junior member of staff.
What the hell was the former footy ace thinking?
Jermaine Jenas has been sacked by the BBC after alleged ‘inappropriate behaviour’
He is a father of three young children with his loving wife, Ellie, whom he is pictured with
Is his ego so ginormous he can’t recognise the line between acceptable and improper behaviour? Of course we do not know the details, only that he has come out fighting, saying, ‘I’m not happy about it’ and ‘there are two sides to every story’.
Nor do we know the content of the messages. But if it was just innocent texting between the BBC star and a junior, you can be sure Jenas wouldn’t now be sacked.
What’s interesting is that the Beeb has acted so swiftly when it took so long to part ways with the serially disgraced Huw Edwards, now convicted of making indecent images of children. The BBC continued to pay his £480,000 salary even after it knew he had been arrested last November.
I’m not saying there is anything comparable between their misdemeanours, but Jenas’s dismissal is nevertheless a salutary message to folk in positions of power. Because there is a history of this kind of behaviour.
I’m talking not just of Huw Edwards. There was the Phillip Schofield affair – a relationship with a young colleague that he admitted was ‘unwise but not illegal’ which cost him his job at ITV’s This Morning.
There are plenty of other examples, too.
What I simply can’t understand is why these people at the height of their success, people like Jenas, should risk everything to text a junior colleague.
Why couldn’t this former football hero keep his mobile zipped up?
A father’s devotion
Amid all the speculation as to what caused the tragic sinking of tech billionaire Mike Lynch’s £30million yacht Bayesian comes one heartbreaking theory.
That he died because he went downstairs to try to rescue his daughter Hannah, 18, whose body has now been recovered.
We are only beginning to understand the truly loving and accomplished nature of the Lynch family which makes the tragedy all the more poignant.
Wish you weren’t here, Madonna?
Madonna in Terracina, Italy, with her boyfriend Akeem Morris this week
The Holiday picture in Italy of an exhausted, stooped Madonna clutching the hand of her young lover as if he’s her carer must make even our Material Girl realise dating men half her age is not going to produce images she’s likely to Cherish.
Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick says he’d be ‘delighted’ to have Boris in his shadow cabinet if he wins. Which leaves one wondering, why would a giant of politics want a pygmy standing on his shoulders?
Well done King Charles for stepping up pressure on Prince Andrew to vacate 30- room Royal Lodge for more modest accommodation by cancelling Andrew’s ten-strong security team. The disgraced Duke is no longer a working royal. And yet he still lives in grandeur with his ex, the cling-on Fergie, hardly ever leaving Windsor Park. The only protection Andrew needs is from himself.
The Danish girl accused of kissing Tommy Fury, causing his fiancee Molly-Mae Hague to end their engagement, says he was a gentleman and ‘nothing happened’. Oh dear, a disaster for self-proclaimed ‘victim’ Molly-Mae? How many of her six million Insta fans will now join Tommy’s five million followers?
Desert Island Discs’ Lauren Laverne says her cancer was found by routine screening and urges us not to put off appointments. She spoke as I was having an NHS mammogram. Wishing you a speedy recovery Lauren, and thanks for the advice.
Low blow by J Lo
Jennifer Lopez says her divorce from Ben Affleck is ‘humiliating’
It didn’t take long for Jennifer Lopez to seize the narrative over her divorce, with sources claiming Ben Affleck is ‘selfish, sullen and a loudmouth, impossible to be married to’.
Not nice Jen! Especially as he’s always been a moody bugger.
She says the divorce is ‘humiliating’. If anyone should feel humiliated it’s Ben as, despite dire warnings from his mates, he fell for this desperate diva twice!
Royal photographer Arthur Edwards, who first snapped Prince Harry in Diana’s arms in 1984 and has travelled the world with him since, says after watching videos of the Prince and Meghan’s faux royal trip to Columbia that he’s never seen him looking so miserable. ‘Our once favourite royal is bored to bits, fed up of this endless woke pantomime he now finds himself starring in,’ he says. Harry miserable, alongside mega-grin Meghan? Well, you reap what you sow.
Westminster wars
Starmer’s honeymoon is over, official. A majority of the public say he was wrong to cave into train drivers and give them a 14.25 per cent pay rise, not least because some are demanding extra holiday and planning more strikes. Things Can Only Get Worse, given a quarter of voters believe Labour’s pay deals are unaffordable – and will lead to higher taxes just as OAPs are shamefully robbed of their winter fuel payments.
- Good news for the currently out of work Michael Gove that he’s tipped to appear on Claudia Winkleman’s celebrity version of The Traitors, a role the backstabbing former minister was surely born for.
Davina McCall posts a snap of herself in a bikini with a washboard stomach so hard you could scrub your smalls on it.
Davina McCall posted this picture of herself in a ruffled red two-piece on Instagram this week
She doesn’t care what people who call her too skinny say, she feels ‘f****** great!’ And she adds that if you can’t say something nice about her, don’t say anything.
Okay then, I’m keeping schtum.
In podcast You’ll Never Beat Kyle Walker, the footballer tells us about his tough childhood on a Sheffield council estate, describing the discovery of a hanged man and a deliberate house fire next door. So that’s what made Walker a serial cheat? Grow up and spare us the pity party, Kyle.
New TV series Dating Naked, where contestants are in the nuddy, carries a disclaimer that ‘strict hygiene protocols were in place during filming’. Jolly good, but I’m more worried about the horses contestants Emily and Billy rode commando. Who’s looking after their hygiene?
Three beers for Clarkson!
Jeremy Clarkson’s pub The Farmer’s Dog opened yesterday in Oxfordshire as fans queued to get in. Meanwhile, five million viewers streamed his hit farm series. Shows how successful you can be if Meghan tries to get you cancelled – as she did Clarkson after he wrote admittedly vile things about her.