At 41, the world was his oyster. A happily married father of three young children with his loving wife Ellie. A £2.8 million mansion and an income of £190,000 a year.
Man, he was even tipped as Gary Lineker’s replacement as Match of the Day presenter.
Life couldn’t get any sweeter, so why did he make it sour?
Jermaine Jenas, Match Of The Day analyst and presenter of family-friendly TV show The One Show, has been summarily sacked by the BBC after alleged ‘inappropriate behaviour’, including sending unsolicited text messages to a junior member of staff.
What on earth was the former football star thinking?
Jermaine Jenas has been sacked by the BBC after alleged ‘inappropriate behaviour’
He is the father of three young children with his loving wife Ellie, who he is pictured with
Is his ego so huge that he can’t recognize the line between acceptable and inappropriate behavior? Of course, we don’t know the details, only that he came out fighting and said, “I’m not happy about it” and “there are two sides to every story.”
We also don’t know the content of the messages. But if they were just innocent texts between the BBC star and a junior, you can bet Jenas wouldn’t be fired now.
The interesting thing is that the Beeb acted so quickly when it took so long to part ways with the serially discredited 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 in November last year.
I’m not saying there’s anything comparable between their crimes, but Jenas’ resignation is nonetheless a salutary message to people in positions of power. Because there is a history of this kind of behavior.
I’m not just talking about Huw Edwards. There was also the Phillip Schofield affair – a relationship with a young colleague that he admitted was ‘unwise but not illegal’, which cost him his job on ITV’s This Morning.
There are many more examples.
What I just can’t understand is why people like Jenas, who are at the height of their success, would risk everything to send a message to a younger colleague.
Why couldn’t this former football hero keep his phone shut?
A father’s devotion
Amid all the speculation about the cause of the tragic sinking of tech billionaire Mike Lynch’s £30 million yacht Bayesian, there is one heartbreaking theory.
That he died because he went down to save his daughter Hannah, 18. Her body has since been recovered.
We are only just beginning to understand how loving and successful the Lynch family was, which makes the tragedy all the more poignant.
Do you wish you weren’t here, Madonna?
Madonna in Terracina, Italy, with her boyfriend Akeem Morris this week
The Italian vacation photo of an exhausted, hunched Madonna holding her young lover’s hand as if he were her caregiver should make even our Material Girl realize that dating men half her age is not going to produce an image she’ll cherish.
Well done, King Charles, for piling on the pressure on Prince Andrew to vacate the 30-room Royal Lodge for a more modest abode by canceling Andrew’s 10-person security detail. The disgraced duke is no longer a working royal. And yet he continues to live in splendor with his ex, the doting Fergie, and rarely leaves Windsor Park. The only protection Andrew needs is from himself.
The Danish girl accused of kissing Tommy Fury, causing his fiancée Molly-Mae Hague to end their engagement, says he was a gentleman and ‘nothing happened’. Oh dear, disaster for self-proclaimed ‘victim’ Molly-Mae? How many of her six million Insta fans will now join Tommy’s five million followers?
Lauren Laverne from Desert Island Discs says her cancer was discovered through routine screening and urges us not to delay appointments. She was speaking as I was having an NHS mammogram. I wish you a speedy recovery Lauren, and thanks for the advice.
Low clap from J Lo
Jennifer Lopez says her divorce from Ben Affleck is ‘humiliating’
It didn’t take long for Jennifer Lopez to pick up on the story of her divorce. Sources claimed that Ben Affleck was “selfish, surly and loud, and that it would be impossible to marry him.”
Not nice Jen! Especially since he’s always been a moody little guy.
She says the split is ‘humiliating’. If anyone should feel humiliated, it’s Ben, because despite dire warnings from his mates, he fell for this desperate diva twice!
Royal photographer Arthur Edwards, who first photographed Prince Harry in Diana’s arms in 1984 and has travelled the world with him ever since, says he’s never seen him so miserable after watching videos of the Prince and Meghan’s mock royal trip to Columbia. “Our once favourite royal is bored stiff, fed up with this endless woke pantomime in which he now stars,” he says. Harry miserable, next to Meghan’s mega-grin? Well, you reap what you sow.
Westminster Wars
Starmer’s honeymoon is officially over. A majority of the public say he was wrong to give in to train drivers and give them a 14.25% pay rise, not least as some demand extra holiday and plan more strikes. Things can only get worse, with a quarter of voters believing Labour’s pay deals are unaffordable – and will lead to higher taxes, just as pensioners are shamefully being robbed of their winter fuel payments.
- Good news for the currently unemployed Michael Gove: he could be appearing in Claudia Winkleman’s celebrity version of The Traitors, a role the treacherous ex-minister was undoubtedly born to play.
Davina McCall posts a photo of herself in a bikini with a washboard stomach so hard you could wash your vagina with it.
Davina McCall posted this photo of herself in a pleated red two-piece suit on Instagram this week
She doesn’t care what people say about her being too thin, she feels ‘f****** amazing!’ She adds that if you can’t say anything nice about her, then don’t say anything at all.
Okay then, I’ll keep my mouth shut.
In the podcast You’ll Never Beat Kyle Walker, the footballer tells us about his tough childhood in social housing in Sheffield, describing the discovery of a hanging man and a deliberate house fire next door. So that’s what made Walker a serial cheater? Grow up and spare us the pity party, Kyle.
New TV series Dating Naked, in which contestants are naked, comes with a disclaimer that there were “strict hygiene protocols in place during filming.” That’s fine, but I’m more concerned about the horses that contestants Emily and Billy rode commando. Who’s looking out for their hygiene?
Three beers for Clarkson!
Jeremy Clarkson’s pub The Farmer’s Dog opened yesterday in Oxfordshire to fans queuing to get in. Meanwhile, five million viewers streamed his hit farm series. Shows how successful you can be when Meghan tries to get you cancelled – as she did to Clarkson after he admittedly wrote disgusting things about her.