Celebrities

Amanda Holden, 52, comments on her marriage with ex-husband Les Dennis and speaks about her reasons for marrying a man 17 years older than her

Published 2 years ago on Mar 26, 2023

Amanda Holden has opened up on her relationship with Les Dennis, whom she married at the age of 23 when he was 40. Saying she felt safe in a relationship with an older man.

Amanda Holden, who is a judge on the television show Britain's Got Talent, married Les Dennis, a television presenter, in 1995. She was 23 years old at the time, and he was 40. The two of them had met while working on a stage production of The Sound of Music.

Unfortunately, after five years of marriage, Amanda Holden and Les Dennis separated, and it was revealed that Amanda had an affair with actor Neil Morrissey, who was 60 at the time. The affair was highly publicized in the media.

The pair began their dalliance when they worked together on 2000 film Happy Birthday Shakespeare, with Amanda later admitting their relationship was just about 'sex'.

At the time, many speculated as to whether it was the age gap between Amanda and Les that caused their problems.

Despite Amanda Holden and Les Dennis reconciling after her affair with Neil Morrissey, they eventually split in 2002. Amanda has expressed uncertainty about whether she was searching for a father figure in Les.

Amanda Holden told The Times that she is unsure whether she was looking for a father figure in her ex-husband Les Dennis or not. She also said that she has never done therapy but feels that there is a certain safety in being in a relationship with an older man.

And while Amanda and Les later reconciled before finally splitting in 2002, she insists that she has no idea if she was looking for a father figure in the funnyman.

She told The Times: 'I don’t know because I’ve never done therapy, but there is a sort of safety in a relationship like that.

'I was very young and I had a lot to learn about life.'

About her marriage and affair, she previously told th Daily mal: 'I brought it on myself, I appreciate that, but nothing will ever be as bad again.

'It was a very dark time. It got to the point where I felt I could hardly breathe.

'Les proved to be my saviour. Ironically. So the person I’d hurt the most in the world was the one who was there for me.'

It comes after Les Dennis took a playful swipe at this ex-wife amanda with a joke abot her affair with Neil.

Speaking on the show and Tell with Christopher Biggins podcast previously, Les talked about when he used to star in pantomimes alongside the late American actor Mickey Rooney shortly after his divorce.

Before each show the theatre would play Christmas songs, including Frank Sinatra's famous hit Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

Les said: 'Mickey would get very angry, because of course, Frank Sinatra ran off with Ava Gardner (Mickey's wife).

'It would've been like me having to listen to Bob The Builder every night.'

The quip was in reference to the fact that Neil was the voice of Bob on the children's show for 14 years.

In 2013, Amanda opened up about her affair with Neil, telling good Housekeeping: 'I don't believe women have affairs for no reason.

'Neil rightly or wrongly got loads of stick. I feel like it was my fault - I was the one who was married.

'I want to change the general perception of him, as he was very caring and very loving and very worried about me because I lost so much weight. He used to cook for me and look after me and babysit the dogs.'

According to the article, in 2014 Neil Morrissey publicly apologized to Les Dennis for the affair he had with his then-wife Amanda Holden.

The star, who has previously said he had not apologised to Les, made the admission on Piers Morgan's Life Stories.

He said: 'I feel sorry for how the situation was dealt with and I feel sorry for how emotional Les seemed to become. It was very difficult for him and for that I'm very sorry.'

His comment came after he was asked by Piers if he had ever apologised to Les, to which he replied: 'No, I didn't. I'm not positive over what there is apologise about. I don't know what the whole situation was, to be perfectly fair to everybody.'

When asked why he has never spoken about it before, the father-of-one shared: 'I think enough was said about it. This was a very short fling. I didn't have representation at the time, in terms of PR and this was the first time I'd really come under the cosh.'

Amanda Holden

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