Jermaine Jenas has said former employers BBC took his life away on the back of a sexting scandal that saw him sacked by the broadcaster.
The ex-England and Tottenham midfielder – who was capped 21 times by his country between 2003 and 2009 – was dismissed in August over allegations of workplace misconduct after sending explicit texts to two female employees.
While at the time Jenas said he and wife Ellie Penfold, who married in 2011, hoped to work through their marital troubles, the couple eventually split in March this year, with the presenter admitting the break-up wasn’t his call as he grovelled for forgiveness before accepting his fate.
The ex-footballer is now trying to rebuild his career with a series of podcast appearances and continues to open up on the scandal that ended a promising partnership between himself and the BBC, which cost him his £190,000 salary.
He also revealed he has opened up his own production company – which has helped open new doors for his career, addressing the fact that he wasn’t allowed to do certain things while employed by the BBC in what has become his previous life.
But Jenas has now admitted how much he really lost through the episode, and revealed the promise he made to himself when the decision was made to let him go.
Jermaine Jenas has said the BBC ‘took my life away’ when he was sacked on the back of a sexting scandal
Jenas married Ellie Penfold in 2011, and they have three children together, while he also has a daughter from a previous relationship
Jenas split from Penfold after he was sacked – but said he was willing to continue the marriage
Speaking to Reece Mennie on his podcast, he said: ‘Having worked in the media for the last ten years, and having been through what I’ve been through for the last year, been a really difficult moment for myself and my family what happened which I have always held up my hand and taken full responsibility for, that’s very important to do.
‘You go through a lot of different emotions of anger and blame, but eventually you realise: “Take responsibility, Jermaine, and you’ll be able to move forward.”
‘Because of their ability to take away my life, in terms of every deal I had, the jobs that I had at that particular time, I said that is never happening to me again, so I’ve recently set up my own production company. My agency that I had at the time weren’t that supportive of it.
‘This is not their fault, but when you’re in this kind of media bubble where you work for the BBC, there are so many walls in terms of what they want you to do and what you’re not allowed to do. Betting companies want to work with me because I’m in football; BBC hate that because of the issues to do with gambling in general, so they block all of that.
‘So there were a lot of blocks on one side and football was bringing me some stuff, but the reality is that it ALL got wiped out. It all got taken away.’
Penfold was left ‘raging’ and kicked the former Tottenham Hotspur star out of their bedroom at their £1million family home when it was revealed he had sent explicit messages to two members of staff at the BBC.
Jenas confessed to lying to Penfold, who describes herself as a ‘wife and mother’ in her Instagram bio, during a family holiday to Spain when he sneaked off to talk to his bosses about the messages.
The former England star admitted sending the texts but insists he has done nothing illegal.
He said he made a pledge that a similar incident ‘is never happening again’ because of the BBC’s ability to ‘take away my life’
Penfold was left ‘raging’ and kicked the former footballer star out of their bedroom at their £1million family home
He denied ever sending indecent images or videos and said the messages were between consenting adults, one of whom ‘made it clear she was interested’.
However Jenas said he is ‘ashamed’ and ‘deeply sorry’ as he apologised for his conduct.
He revealed he was fired in an excruciating video call – while he was on a family holiday in Marbella, Spain, with his wife and their three children.
Jenas slammed this as ‘grim’, having to ‘sit there and listen to what you’ve said’ as four people on the Zoom call read out his inappropriate text messages.
He said he went on to lie to his wife after being informed of the allegations to ‘find a way out of this mess’.
Ellie broke her silence on events at the launch of her new personal care brand Preppy in November.
She said: ‘My only focus has been on our children and building my brand Preppy. Now I just want to move forward.
‘Naturally this has been hard for me but my only concern has been our children and that will not change.’
Jenas confessed to lying to Penfold during a family holiday to Spain when he sneaked off to talk to his bosses
Jenas said he is ‘ashamed’ and ‘deeply sorry’ as he apologised for the controversy
The news of Jenas’s sacking came moments before he went live on air on talkSPORT radio. He returned to punditry work last month, saying on talkSPORT his conduct was ‘wildly inappropriate’.
He continued: ‘I made a mistake. It was a mistake that is something that me and my wife and my family have to deal with.
‘I think that the big thing here is that your career is one thing. I worked 10 years post-retirement from being a footballer and I can take it as far back as I want from starting from nothing to becoming a footballer to getting myself in a very fortunate position to work on television.
‘It’s a lot of hard work that you put into the job, but at the same time, it can be taken away from you like that. That’s one thing that I’ve recognised.’
Speaking on the Filthy Fellas podcast of the split, meanwhile, Jenas said: ‘It was her decision and one that I had to accept. If it was up to me – and I think a lot of men are like this – I’d probably be prepared to be unhappy for the rest of my life if [it meant] I had my kids in it.
‘It’s a man thing. If I wake up with my kids everyday, I’m quite happy to sacrifice the happiness. The reality is, we were both in a position where we like: “Are we really happy”?
‘From her side of things, she’s probably ran the course much more than me. But I was much more happy to go: “I’ll be unhappy if I can stay in this house with you and these kids”. But it wasn’t to be for her and we went our separate ways.
‘She has understood the scenario that we’ve been in as a family. Kids first is our motto. We have to be the best parents we can possibly be. So I’ve been spending so much time at home.
Jenas revealed he was fired from his role at the BBC after an excruciating video call
He worked on the likes of Match of the Day, as well as The One Show alongside Alex Jones, centre, and Roman Kemp
He has previously said that he felt his relationship was rife with issues before the sexting scandal happened
‘Not loads has changed really, it’s just mine and her relationship has gone into more of a friendship than a relationship.
‘I do believe there is going to come a moment where I’m sat in my apartment one day and be like: “This is mad. I had my whole family around me every single day. [Now] I’m not hearing that pitter patter of feet.”
‘That’s going to be the tough side of it. But that’s part of dealing with the situation. The reality is, me and my wife didn’t split up because I sent some text messages to some people at work.
‘We had issues for a period of time and it all comes to a head. Eventually, you make a decision to say, as adults: “We will be better parents for our children if we remain friends”. We had 16 amazing years together. She’s a great woman.’
