Ant and Dec have both admitted that they wished they had had children earlier in life, calling fatherhood ‘our biggest achievement’.
Ant McPartlin, 50, welcomed his first child, a son named Wilder, with wife Anne-Marie Corbett, 47, in May 2024 and is stepdad to her two teenage daughters.
Declan Donnelly, 50, has two young children, daughter Isla, seven, and son Jack, three, with his wife, Ali Astall, 47.
But in the latest episode of their podcast Hanging Out With Ant & Dec the two revealed their regrets that they hadn’t had more children.
After being asked by a listener about their experiences of fatherhood Dec gushed ‘it’s the best thing ever. I wish I’d done it earlier and I wish I’d had ten,’ before laughing ‘maybe not ten. Maybe three’.
Ant agreed, telling him ‘I’ve got three and I’d have more.’
‘It is the best, the absolute best being a dad. And I was lucky enough to be stepdad to my girls a few years before my son was born,’ Ant added.
‘So, I I feel like I had a really great introduction to fatherhood because I got to be able to talk to them straight away. We could go out and the feedback was immediate.’
‘And then when Wilder came along, I got to do all of the baby and toddler stuff that I didn’t get to do with the girls. So, I’ve had the best of both worlds really.’
‘It changes you for the better. All of the sleepless nights, the early mornings, the tiredness is worth it. It’s the greatest thing I think you can do. It far surpasses anything that we’ve achieved in our career.’
Dec agreed, calling parenthood ‘our biggest achievement. Of everything we’ve done professionally. it’s the thing that I think we’ve got the most satisfaction from.’
‘When they first come along, you don’t realise how much they change your life, but for the better, the absolute better. And it’s almost like when they do come along, you’ve discovered the meaning of life.’
‘For me, I was lucky enough to have two, a girl and a boy. I was a bit worried before Jack came along because I thought, “God, am I ever going to be able to love him as much as I love Isla?”‘
‘Do I have to half my love to both of them? Do they both get half of my love? Because she’s got it all at the moment. And then he came along and you realise then, oh no, you don’t half anything.’
‘You get double the love. You reach another level within you that you just find more love for this other little thing.’
Earlier this month Ant was branded ‘icky’ by his best friend Dec after sharing very personal details about his intimate life with wife Anne-Marie.
The longtime friends were discussing Harry Styles’ new album, Kiss All The Time Disco Occasionally, when Ant ‘icked’ out Dec with the admission.
‘I do kiss a lot though,’ Ant said on their podcast Hanging Out last Thursday, referencing the title of the album. ‘I do like kissing. It’s one of the things to do. My wife, the same person. I’m not going around just kissing loads of people.’
Dec scrunched his face up at the comment, grimacing at the camera before turning to Ant and saying: ‘Thought you were gonna stick one on us there.’
Ant went on to say how much he loves kissing and how they ‘get better as you get older’, before asking his pal why he was making a uncomfortable face.
‘I find this a bit icky. Just keep it for the bedroom,’ Dec said.
Ant tied the knot with his wife Anne-Marie, his ex-wife Lisa Armstrong’s assistant, in August 2021 at St Michael’s Church in Heckfield, Hampshire.
Talking about his love of kissing, he said: ‘I like kissing we should kiss more. Not me and you. People should just kiss. Kissing’s great isn’t it. Isn’t kissing great? Isn’t it though?
‘Think of the first kiss you ever had, and the kisses got better as you got older. It’s great.’
Dec went on to say: ‘Keep it for the kitchen or wherever you do it but don’t broadcast it to everybody!’
‘Kissing?!’ Ant said in shock, as Dec added: ‘It’s a bit icky.’
