Ant Middleton has been booted from a reality show after his brother was accused of making ‘disturbing homophobic remarks’.
Earlier this year the former SAS: Who Dares Wins star, who was the Chief Instructor from 2015 until 2021, was announced as part of the line-up for the Australian series of The Amazing Race alongside his brother Dan, who’d he’d previously been estranged from for six years.
However, the following month, reports emerged that they’d been sent packing after an off-camera verbal altercation with another team.
It’s now finally been revealed exactly what unfolded.
This week the show premiered, however Ant and Dan had disappeared by the second episode, with host Beau Ryan explaining in a brief voiceover at the start of the episode that there had been a ‘breach’, before things proceeded as normal.
Then, this morning, Beau addressed rumours over what happened – confirming the incident had targeted contestants and TikTok stars Luke and ‘Sassy’ Scott O’Halloran.
During an interview on Triple M’s Beau, Cat & Woodsy Wednesday morning, Ryan confirming a run in happened ‘in the hotel around the pool area’ early on during filming.
‘Now, Dan Middleton was involved with the two brothers, Luke and Scott…it was an incident,’ he said.
‘The production company was made aware of it, and the network, and I, woke up to the news that they were disqualified. And I spoke to Ant in the morning. He was disappointed that not only was there an incident, but also that his time on the race was over. But our priority was Luke and Scott at the time.’
Meanwhile Luke and Scott shared more details with the Daily Telegraph.
On the very first night of filming in Nepal, they said most contestants ‘went out to explore the local town’, while they opted for a night in the hotel.
‘When the rest of the contestants returned later, Dan Middleton approached us six times, making remarks and gestures that we found homophobic, offensive, intimidatory and disturbing,’ they claimed.
‘Each time he (Dan) came over to us, the encounters felt increasingly more aggressive. At one point, he was right up in our faces, surrounded by some of the other cast members, who seemed to us to be as uncomfortable as we were. At this point, (former AFL player and fellow contestant) Brendan Fevola physically stepped in, putting himself between us and Dan and trying to de-escalate the situation. Brendan did this more than once.’
The pair then said the show’s production company Eureka quickly launched an investigation, with Ant and Dan disqualified ‘by the next morning’.
Reflecting on what happened, Beau said the celebrities had all ‘literally just met each other’ when the incident unfolded.
Earlier this year broadcaster Channel 10 confirmed two contestants were eliminated from the show during filming due after breaching their contract.
‘Network 10 takes the health, safety and wellbeing of all contestants seriously,’ a spokesperson said.
‘Following a breach of the production’s code of conduct by one contestant, on a day off during production, a team from The Amazing Race Australia was disqualified and swiftly sent home.’
When asked about rumours of what happened, Ant told Yahoo!: ‘It’s such a bizarre situation, as I haven’t been privy to any information, as I wasn’t present when a situation unfolded with my brother, and due to confidentiality, the only thing the production could tell me is that our team couldn’t continue due to a situation that unfolded with my brother.
‘I respect the production’s choice to keep the edit minimal with our participation to protect their brand. Strange situation, but one that’s completely out of my control and had nothing to do with [me]!
In 2021 Channel 4 announced they’d axed Ant from SAS: Who Dares Wins due to ‘personal conduct’ following controversial comments he made in relation to Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and Covid-19.
At the time he under fire for comments about the BLM movement against police brutality, branding both far-right protestors and demonstrators’ ‘scum’ in a tweet.
He did however later apologise in a video, insisting he is not a racist after facing severe backlash.
Since then, several people went on to complain about Ant’s ‘inappropriate comments’ towards female staff members on set, however he dismissed it as ‘indirect and just military banter’.
Metro has contacted representatives for Ant Middleton for comment.
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