has spoken out for the first time about and becoming a father.
The 48-year-old TV star will be a first-time father when gives birth, with their baby expected to arrive in June.
While Anne-Marie was seen out and about with an undeniable baby bump earlier this month, Ant has remained tight-lipped on the happy news.
He has acknowledged his incoming fatherhood for the first time in an interview with ahead of the 20th series of Saturday Night Takeaway.
Ant and , also 48, will return to ITV1 to front the show at 7pm on February 24, months after announcing its temporary hiatus.
Now Ant has explained how both he and Dec – who has two children with wife Ali Astall – needed a break from the show after this new season because of fatherhood duties.
‘Part of the reason we’re pausing Takeaway is we need a break ourselves, and we need to spend some time with our family.
He added: ‘We’ve both got children that we need to spend time with for a little bit.’
Ant and Anne-Marie met and his ex-wife Lisa Armstrong in 2017, and they’ve now been together for five years, tying the knot in 2021.
Anne-Marie has been employed by the same London-based management company as Ali Astall, Dec Donnelly’s wife, for over a decade.
Elsewhere in the interview the Geordie duo have admitted they feel ‘sad’ looking back at their old days.
The presenters famously hosted SMTV Live in the alongside .
SMTV Live was that aired on ITV, premiering in August 1998 and running for 270 episodes across five years until December 2003.
The gig well and truly solidified as household names but, despite acknowledging how the show ‘shaped a generation’ the wish they appreciated it more.
Ant and Dec were asked: ‘Have you ever reflected back on your life’s work and the impact the both of you have had on British TV?’
Responding first, Dec, 48, said they ‘very rarely’ reminisce.
‘When you’re in the eye of a storm, I don’t think you really stop and look back
too much. We did a couple of years ago when we realized we’d been working together as a partnership for 30 years. That allowed us to stop and have a little look back,’ he explained.
‘But you never do it for very long because you are always looking at what’s the next project and what’s the next thing to do.’
Ant, also 48, added that writing their book allowed them to remember their SMTV days, which they hadn’t done before.
‘It’s not until decades later when you look back and go, “It was such a wonderful time in our lives.”
‘Not just on TV, but we were living in London, we were doing the show. We got on really well. All three of us, we would work together, we would party together. You know, it was the late nineties in London.’
He added that they were the ‘last show that got away with it’ due to the lack of cameras phones and social media.
When leaving the recording session for their audiobook in which they spoke about SMTV, Ant felt ‘sad’.
‘Not sad because I want to go back there, but it was such a wonderful time, and I felt sad. Did I appreciate it as much as I should have at the time?’, he mused.
‘But I suppose we were mid-twenties; you’re never going to, and it’s not
until you get a bit older and you look back, do you realize what a special time in TV that was.’
Ant and Dec have always spoken fondly about their days presenting kids’ TV.
In December 2020, they joined in with a one-off reunion documentary titled The Story of SMTV Live, in which the duo and Cat reminisced on times gone by.
The show meant so much to them, in fact, that the series’ iconic Chums sketch was just a few years ago.
Ant and Dec are now gearing up forbefore the hugely popular weekend show takes a break
Teasing what’s to come, the Byker Grove alums have promised a major surprise in store.
‘There is something massive, which we’ve never, ever done before. It’s a big surprise,’ Dec hinted.
‘And that’s it. That’s all we’re allowed to tell you!’, Ant quipped.
But never fear, because loyal viewers can also enjoy the return of the guys’ ‘favourite items’ and ‘revisiting old items in a different way’.
Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway returns to ITV1 and ITVX soon.
