Jason Manford shared his regret over his sudden exit from The One Show after a sexting scandal.
The 44-year-old comedian hosted the BBC talk show alongside Alex Jones for a handful of months in 2010, before resigning in November after it was revealed he had sent explicit messages to female fans on X (formerly Twitter).
The TV personality, who was married to his ex-wife Catherine at the time, said he had ‘only himself to blame and had never felt so low’.
Fifteen years on, Manford appeared as a guest on the show earlier this week and uploaded a selfie of his and Alex’s reunion, praising the ‘comfy catch up’.
In the caption, he added: ‘Can’t believe we’ve been friends for over 15 years. One of the most genuine people you’ll ever meet.’
One commenter, gormleymatthew, wrote: ‘It’s such a shame your on-screen partnership didn’t last 15 years. A lovely pair.’
To which Manford replied: ‘I know! F***ed it! But hey ho, we live and learn and grow! Zxx’
The former 8 Out of 10 Cats presenter divorced Catherine – with whom he shares four children – in 2013 and married his current spouse, TV producer Lucy Dyke, in 2017.
Elsewhere in his Instagram caption, he joked that Alex’s current co-host Roman Kemp is officially one of his new padel tennis friends, saying: ‘He doesn’t know it, but he is!’
In a chat with Metro, he revealed exactly why he has become addicted to the sport.
‘For a lot of my mates, who are in their 50s and want to be active but can’t afford to break their ankles, it’s perfect.
‘I injured my rotator cuff on my left shoulder. I’m left-handed. So serving was just killing me, it was so painful.
‘If you’re 60, you’re probably not going to pick up a tennis racket now. Whereas you could quite easily pick up a padel racket and play.’
Meanwhile, the comedian gave his fans a scare over the summer when he was forced to cancel a string of gigs for his show A Manford for All Seasons after being admitted to the hospital.
In the end, it was revealed that he had to have his appendix taken out.
In a caption to his followers, he wrote: ‘Bit of a scary & extremely painful 24 hours but thankful to our NHS & my incredible nurse mum who’s a godsend in a health crisis!’
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