Paddy McGuinness quits as Tempting Fortune presenter
Paddy McGuinness will not be returning as host of Channel 4 reality show Tempting Fortune when the upcoming third series airs.
Paddy McGuinness has quit as host of Tempting Fortune.
The 52-year-old presenter will not be returning to front the third series of the Channel 4 reality show - where people attempt to win a cash prize in the wilderness by avoiding temptations to spend money from the prize pot - due to other commitments.
Paddy said: "I am happy to be passing the baton on and the new host is in for a real treat because it's a great show. I will be sad to leave it, but with other commitments and enjoying more family time, I've had to make some difficult choices."
A Channel 4 spokeswoman added: "Paddy has been a brilliant host of Tempting Fortune, bringing his trademark humour to both series.
"We're grateful for everything he's brought to the show, and we totally understand that the filming commitment overseas is a big one and he is unable to join us for the next series."
Channel 4 has greenlit the third series of the programme - which will once again take place in Malaysia - and filming is set to begin early next year.
It is expected to be broadcast in either late 2026 or early 2027.
Paddy previously revealed that he secretly battled depression during his stint as host of the ITV dating show Take Me Out as he was "mentally burnt out" by his family's struggles with autism.
The star - whose three children Leo, Penelope and Felicity and ex-wife Christine McGuinness all have the neurodevelopmental condition - told Fearne Cotton's Happy Place podcast: "Sometimes I’d be in the dressing room with something on the phone at home and stressing about it.
"Then you’d go out there and you’d do the show and you’d come off, and I’d be knackered because I’d mentally burnt out."
The former Top Gear host added his mind could make "everything worse" and "magnified" all of his problems.
He said: "I think your mind is a powerful tool. It makes everything worse. Every problem is magnified a million times, and I was always going ‘worst case scenario’ of everything."
After Take Me Out ended in 2019, Paddy said he hoped the show would return in the future - though admitted the programme’s format could now be problematic.
Speaking on the Table Manners podcast, he said: "I think the way things are at the world now, we live in a very strange time where if you're saying something jokey or something not serious or whatever, it gets taken out of context, put online, and there's a spin on everything."
