Former BBC star and England international player Jermaine Jenas was at the top of his game, but has now spoken out on the texts he sent that caused his career to plummet
Jermaine Jenas has broken his silence on texts that triggered his firing from the BBC.
The former England footballer carved out a good career for himself in the world of television, landing himself several roles on the BBC. Viewers tuning in would be able to see him on the likes of Match of the Day, as well as The One Show.
However, in August of 2024, a slew of explicit text messages allegedly sent by Jermaine were leaked, thrusting him into the spotlight for the wrong reasons. The “sexts” eventually led to the downfall of his 14-year long marriage to his former wife Ellie Penfold, and also led to him being fired from the BBC.
After attempting to make the relationship work after the revelations, Ellie called time on their marriage in March of this year, writing: “I never imagined I would have to share something so personal with the public, but given the situation, I feel it’s necessary. After 16 years together and 4 wonderful children, Jermaine and I have decided to part ways.”
Jermaine has now opened up on the texts that ruined his marriage and his career. Speaking to comedian Katherine Ryan on his podcast Let Me Tell You Something, the former footballer said he had “broken a vow”, and that he deserved to be reprimanded, the Mirror reported.
“I feel my level of punishment was up there,” Jermaine said. “I had to take it and have some broad shoulders and handle it, and I feel like I did that.”
When asked to reveal more about the texts, Jermaine compared what was sent as being similar to that of racy novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Describing how he portrayed h himself the texts, Jermaine admitted: “It was Christian Grey in text messages, put it that way.”
He added: “It was sexting, as simple as that, but it was initiated to me and then I responded. It wasn’t just me going out of my way and it definitely – 100% – wasn’t ‘if you do this I will help you in your work’; there was no power element to it going on.”
The former presenter went on to say that the texts were sent during a particularly rough patch for himself and his wife, as he explained they were “spiralling”. However, this did not mean that he was absolving himself of blame, and instead doubled down, insisting: “I’m fully accepting responsibility.”
At the time, Jermaine told Sun that he felt “ashamed” and was “deeply sorry” for his actions. He would eventually be brought into HR at the BBC, with senior executives reading the messages aloud before being told that his contract would be coming to an end.
However, it was not just the BBC that Jermaine lost his job at. The presenter would also go on to be given the boot from other hosting gigs such as electric racing series Formula E; as well as being snubbed by ITV to cover SoccerAid in 2025, despite being a staple of the team.
But despite these setbacks, Jermaine explained that he accepted the hits for what he had done. “I dealt with it wrong and got heavily punished for it by losing pretty much everything that I had at that time,” he lamented.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
