Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly reunite for the first time since the drink drive arrest
Ant McPartlin has tried to stay low key ever since he was arrested for an accident he caused when he was under the influence of alcohol. The actor, since then, has been to court and to rehab. However, after all the drama of the previous months, he was joined by his best friend of more than 20 years, Dec Donnelly on Tuesday (May 15). The duo was spotted enjoying an off-duty day in an English pub garden.
Ever since Ant pleaded guilty for the accident, he has spent most of his days in rehab. For the first time ever, Dec had to attend the BAFTA awards alone. During the event, the pair was given an award for Best Entertainment Programme for Britain’s Got Talent, which Dec collected on their behalf. Even though Dec has been vocal about his emotions and sadness about not having Dec by his side while hosting the award show, the actor decided to skip the winners' room interviews following their win.
However, he was joined by his lovely wife, Ali Astall, and the couple announced that they were due in September. After the March 19 accident, the actor said in a statement that he would work towards fixing his life and then think about coming back to hosting shows.
For a long time, Dec was silent about the accident but decided to speak up after Saturday Night Takeaway showrunners confirmed that Ant won't be hosting the finale of the show. Taking to his social media Dec wrote, "Whilst I never thought I’d be in this position, after much discussion and careful consideration we’ve decided that the remaining two shows of this series of Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead."
"We made a promise to take hundreds of deserving winners to Florida to watch the series finale, and we will honor that. Everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team feels we owe it to the audience to complete the series. Dec x," he continued. Despite this, Dec was upset about breaking the pact between the friends about not working solo. “Dec is stressed and it is a very difficult decision in terms of what he does next," a source told the Mirror at that time.
"They always said they would not work solo but now he has to think about not just their careers but hundreds of employees who work for them and ITV. It feels like an impossible dilemma for him and he doesn’t know what is the right answer," the source continued. But it sure looks like all is good between the two.