Aibu to think he’ll struggle coming back from this (Ant)

[Fruitbat1980]

What a stupid boy. Worth 60 million and doesn’t get a taxi. I just don’t know how he’ll come back from this latest fiasco (drink drive car crash hits 3 year old).

I think people would have felt the same if Eric Morecambe had become like this in 1978 actually. Some celebrities, and Ant is one of them, feel to many people like a trusted part of their lives. It's all an illusion, of course, but he's been on TV 25 years and has been a source of pleasure to millions of people. I think it's understandable that many of them are shaken by this. It doesn't mean they excuse him. If anything I suspect they feel let down.

I genuinely wish celeb culture would end. Entertainers need to get back in their place and return to be seen as something akin to the court jesters of old. They can then come out every so often to amuse you, they are paid an appropriate amount and then they go away.

There never used to be all this fawning. I recently went to a dinner party and DH and I were so bored. All the other two couples seemed to talk about was celeb gossip. I don’t mind a little chat about big news featuring a celeb but endless talk about people you don’t know? They talked about them as though they were relatives in fact they talked about them more than relatives. These people were all in their 40s so not teenagers.

Now people are sad about the career of one of them probably much sadder than if Brian next door lost his job under the same circumstances.

There’ll be 100s of other cheeky chapppies ready to replace him. Everyone will fall in love with the replacement and it will be ‘Ant who? this time next year.

Please die celeb culture.

AlistairAppleton

Yes. Im not stupid. Or needy. Far from it.

I had not an ounce of sympathy for that Russell Jonathon debacle. But Ant and Dec...

Unfinished

Id be very sad if my neighbour lost his job too.

We’re obviously very different people then ferriswheel. I wouldn’t give a shiny shit about my neighbour’s job if they’d lost it through drink driving. I’d just be thanking the stars he didn’t kill or injure any of my family.

I actually distanced myself from an acquaintance who joked about driving drunk from a party wondering how she’d got home as she couldn’t remember the journey. According to her ‘we’ve all done it’. No I fucking haven’t.

I agree with you entirely. But it would still make me sad that they were in a mess.

I spent years trying to support my stbxh in his mess before i gave up. There is no excuse for bad behaviour. Especially drink driving. But the mess of a broken person is always sad. Well i think so.

Unfinished, I am with you 100%.

I can’t feel ‘sad’ for an extremely wealthy, privileged white man who makes choices that innocent people’s lives at risk. I just can’t.

Feeling sad for someone is different to feeling sad about someone.

You can think it's dreadful to drink and drive and feel sad that someone has been reduced to that state all at the same time. Not everyone has black and white emotions. Many of us exist with shades of grey.

So I think Ant appears to now be quite a prick. It seems this hasn't always been the case. Cocaine turns people into pricks, as does alcohol, as does painkiller abuse. Who knows what happened? The PR campaign against his ex-wife demeans him, and he is clearly a total mess.

But I can still feel sad that one of the two 'nice young men' who have entertained me and my family all these years is in this state now, to be acting like this. It doesn't mean drink driving is excusable.

The PR campaign against his ex wife is emotionally and mentally abusive.

I don't think the attempts to try and blame his wife are working.

Obviously I don't know either of them but she appears to not have put a foot wrong and has handled this whole situation with grace and courage.

I have respect for her continuing to work throughout their relationship. If my husband earned anything like his reported earnings I might be tempted to give up paid employment. The fact that she has continued in a real job speaks volumes about her.

Yeah. I really like his wife too. I bet she worked her backside off to save him previously.

Does his PR honestly think we are going to swallow this nonsense about blaming his wife? Didn't he decide to call it a day on their marriage and she was distraught? Or even if that wasn't the case, to blame her is disgraceful.

It was HIS decision. There are then. To drive the car. To blame anyone other than him, is ridiculous.

Do they honestly think joe public is stupid enough o swallow their PR rubbish of blaming her?

Ive seen that there is a campaign against his wife but not the actual campaign if you see what I mean? So the press I've seen about her is minimal and she seems like a normal person, if somewhat badly treated through losing her job. Weirdly, I thought being married and with someone normal and normal looking was an indicator of how grounded he was.

The silence from posters like Bluelady who were so very adamant that there was no proof despite the fact that drunk or not he drove terribly and only pure luck saved a terrible accident is rather deafening!

Trying to blame his wife can only backfire with most of the public. I feel very sorry for her, as they'd been together such a long time - as well as the infertility heartache she's probably also lost a lot of friends in the industry as she'd also worked in it for 20 years or so. And now she gets the press hounding her even more for his mistakes.

I think the campaign is subtle.

Pictures of her outside a pub drinking and smoking and talking to a "mystery man". Trying to imply she likes to party and link her with any male she happens to be stood next to.

Unflattering Make-up free pictures often with cigarette in mouth.

Quotes from his friends that she is taking him to the cleaners. When in reality she continues to work and is legally entitled to half anyway.

Battling for custody of the beloved dog. Rarely see her walking the dog yet Ant is rarely pictured without him. Implying that he cares more for the dog. No wonder she wants the dog. You wouldn't leave Ant in charge of a goldfish.

Lisa remins in the multi million pound mansion whilst poor Ant rents a house near by. Well I understand it was his decision to leave the marriage so he should be the one to move out.

Agree the Daily Mail in particular has taken great efforts to print the most unflattering photographs of his wife for months it's been completely unnecessary speculation around their marriage and snide comments that have been made around her support or lack of it.

IanRush, but there WAS no proof at the time. Everything was alleged until it became known yesterday that he had been charged.

There was no proof of drink driving.

There was proof of driving like a twat in a residential area. Otherwise he wouldn't have been the only one arrested. And there were several witnesses who commented on his driving or him rowing with his mum/police.

The latter is bad enough for me to say he made a poor judgment call and is lucky he didn't cause a terrible accident. It's not yes or no; it's degrees of how shittily he behaved in getting behind that wheel and driving like that.

Ian are you being serious?? Do you want anymore straws to clutch??

Everything was alleged until it became known yesterday that he had been charged.

There was his car with a bloody great bite out of the front, stopped on the wrong side of the road, another car on the right side of the road with matching damage, a positive (or negative, depending on how you view it) breath test and video of him climbing out of the wreckage. That's only "alleged" within the very narrow ambit of a CPS solicitor's office. It would certainly be enough to make sure that it's his insurance paying up, and it would certainly be enough to settle any "balance of probabilities" civil action that might arise.

And if you're going to be all even handed and shit, it's still only "alleged": he's been charged, and he is perfectly entitled to plead not guilty and force a trial. Are you seriously saying that everyone should pretend that he's entirely innocent and that, say, he should be encouraged to drive cars on the public highway to demonstrate this, until a court has found him guilty? He's going to be found guilty: there's no practical defence for the facts as currently available. But he's still innocent up until the magistrate pronounces, right? And even then, he could appeal, yes?

pfffft Matilda.

I am perfectly serious. I've driven that road hundreds of times. Have you?

To drive along it fast enough to do the damage he did in the pics and as confirmed by witnesses is to drive like an absolute bellend with no thought to others. Any number of young kids or even dogs are on that road/footpath at any time of day and it's always busy with traffic.

Ditto for it to be your second bump in as many weeks; to be arrested for 10 hours and released "pending investigation"; and then to cancel your show, letting down your partner, your crew, your employers and the people who'd won in the final to go to rehab immediately... hardly the actions of a man who was acting entirely correctly, however desperate you are to seem open minded

I don't like people online saying good, he was crap on tv anyway. I don't like the troll who taunted the people in the mini with a fake restaurant review. I don't like people making excuses because he's famous. All equally shit and irrelevant.

Yes, drink driving is worse, but there was still enough there to say, "come on ant, you drove like a dickhead, and you're lucky you didn't really hurt or kill someone."

You'd have to be wearing enormous "I love ant" blinkers to think otherwise.

The best thing is that nobody was seriously hurt. The next best thing that could happen is that he gets some proper help, sorts himself out, and then uses his shame to raise awareness for mental health and addiction issues and the vital importance of getting help. He has a good stance there, as he is mr squeaky clean - not exactly slash or Keith Richards - so he could do a lot of good.

Ian I think we're talking at cross purposes here.
You appear to only be focussing on his manner of driving, not the glaring evidencr of him failing a roadside breath test and then being charged with that offence, not careless driving, not driving in accordance, not dangerous driving.

I'm a traffic cop and I'm as sick as you are of the blinkered responses on social media to it. As I said upthread, my first fatal RTC was a 12 year old girl killed by a drink driver. Blew 105mg when legal limit is 35.

Ant would have had to have blown at least over 40mg on the custody intoximeter to be charged.

I'm so saddened that the charge still doesn't seem to have convinced some people.

I can't help but be surprised that he's hasn't also been charged with dangerous driving while under the influence.
I bet he's breathing a huge sigh of relief.
I know drink driving is black and white but wonder if his hefty legal team (assuming he has the best money can buy) has earned their fee by negotiating down his charges.
Still can't help but feel as if he will be getting away quite lightly, particularly with the inevitable immediate admission to rehab.
One can only hope that all of his advantages can make him appreciate and possibly give back two or three fold in the future.
He could become a great inspiration and a force for good if he truly learns what a bloody lucky man he is to be afforded another chance.
Only time will tell. After all its not what's thrown at us that defines us but how we deal with it.

I had some sympathy for Ant when he went into rehab last year but now I think he’s a twat. There are no excuses for anyone who gets behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol and or drugs. It’s probably not the first time he’s done it either. He’s bloody lucky that he’s not facing more serious charges.

How can his legal team negotiate a charge?