Vernon Kay says he and his wife Tess Daly have ‘moved on’ from his past sexting scandal.
The All Star Family Fortunes host is set to enter the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! castle this weekend, as the show switches from the Australian jungle to the Welsh countryside.
And while Vernon is happy to talk about ‘positive stuff and negative stuff’ with his campmates, he isn’t going on the show to address misconceptions about him.
Speaking to the Mirror, the 46-year-old said: ‘There isn’t a hidden side to me. I’ve been on telly for 20 years and my career started on a reality show.
‘All that stuff is in the past, we’ve forgotten about that, we’ve moved on. It’s all gone. It’s disappeared.’
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He added: ‘I think that’s why I’m hoping this camp will be an open forum with no judgement on what people have done in the past and the present and how they’ve moved on from it.’
In 2010, Vernon and Tess’s then-seven year marriage was rocked after it emerged that the TV star had been exchanging flirty texts with Page 3 model Rhian Sugden.
Vernon issued an apology to his wife live on Radio 1, saying: ‘Now this week you may or may not be aware that because of some foolish and stupid decisions I have made, I have disappointed and I have let down a lot of people.
‘To my family and everybody, I am very sorry.’
He added that he and Tess were working through things and that he had hoped to start afresh with a ‘clean slate’.
However, the scandal resurfaced six years later, as it emerged that Vernon had texted Rhian again to ‘reconnect’.
The TV presenter explained in a Facebook post: ‘I recognise how it may look when messages are pulled out of context but there was never any inappropriate intent to our communication, I was merely trying to find answers to questions that I’ve had since 2010.
‘Tess is aware of everything that has been discussed with Rhian.’
Rhian, 34, later wrote an open letter to Tess, 51, apologising for the incident, insisting that it was nothing more than ‘a close friendship and flirty messages’ but that she never should hae allowed him to ‘continue speaking to me the way he did’.
The model said: ‘It should have never have got to the stage it did. It was disrespectful, hurtful and I can only apologise for my actions.’
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Strictly host Tess and Vernon stayed together throughout the drama and are still going strong, spending lockdown together with their two daughters.
Vernon said that it was his wife who encouraged him to sign up for I’m A Celebrity, and revealed that the star is backing him ‘100 percent’.
Due to travel restrictions, ITV’s winter staple is moving to Gwrych Castle in Wales, with celebs set to be freezing in a castle rather than chilling in the Aussie bush.
Vernon will be joined by celebrities including Shane Richie, AJ Pritchard and Victoria Derbyshire, as they compete to become the first ever King or Queen of the Castle.
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I’m A Celebrity begins on ITV this Sunday at 9pm.
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