Dec Donnelly tears up with emotional message to '1994 Ant McPartlin'
Dec Donnelly has written a letter to his teenage self, which includes an emotional message to best friend Ant McPartlin.
Dec Donnelly fought back tears as he told Ant McPartlin "it will all be ok" in a letter to his younger self.
The two co-stars have been best friends and presenting partners for decades, and in a new podcast episode Dec had an emotional message for his friend, which hinted at Ant's past struggles with alcohol and drug addiction.
In a preview clip for Hanging Out With Ant and Dec, he was ready to read a letter to his younger self, having previously shared entries from his teenage diary from 1994.
Visibly emotional, Dec said: "This might be a hard bit".
He continued: "Say hi to 1994 Ant for me. Tell him to remember he's a great kid, and it will all be ok. Even when it feels like it won't.
"Look out for each other, enjoy the ride and hey, respect guys. Love from future Dec."
Ant has been sober since 2018, after he was arrested for drink-driving and faced an £86,000 fine.
A year after the incident, Dec admitted he found himself considering a solo career, in case Ant wasn't able to get himself back on track.
He told The Guardian newspaper: "I’d be lying if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind. Of course I thought about it.
"Ant went away [to rehab], and he had a lot of work to do on himself. He had a lot of thinking to do.
"Equally, I did. I thought about every eventuality and every permutation. Ultimately, the number one thing I wanted to happen was that Ant came back and he was healthy and happy, and we got our relationship back on track and we carried on."
At the time, Ant revealed how the fallout of the accident helped them rekindle their friendship beyond being work partners.
He explained: "For the first time in many years, all we talked about were deep things like how we felt and what the future held, and where we were, and all the chaos that has come along, especially for me.
“We are blokes in our early 40s and things change You [Dec] have a family. I’ve got divorced. So things happen in life that change you as a person. And we talked about life.”
