Online Reporter
JERMAINE JENAS has admitted that he would have been willing to be “unhappy for the rest of his life” in order to stay with wife Ellie Penfold.
Ellie announced her split with former Tottenham and England star Jenas in March.
Their break-up came six months after Jenas was axed by the BBC following a sexting scandal.
The 42-year-old was relieved of his services by the Beeb after being accused of sending X-rated texts to two female colleagues.
Jenas, who has four children with Ellie, went on to admit to sending the messages, but stressed that the texts were consensual and that he had not broken the law.
The former One Show host told The Sun that Ellie was “raging” following the allegations – but that he hoped to work through their issues.
In March, however, Ellie took to Instagram to reveal that their marriage was over after 14 years.
Jenas, who returned to punditry work with talkSPORT in February, has now opened up on his marriage ending during an appearance on the Filthy Fellas podcast.
Speaking candidly about his break-up, 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. If I have my kids, I’m quite happy to sacrifice.”
Jenas then went on to add: “It’s a man thing. Relationships are what they are – they have highs, they have lows and people cheat – some people do, some people don’t, but you figure a lot of things out.
“The reality is we both were in a position where we were like ‘are we really happy?’
“From her side of things, she’d ran the course more than probably 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’.
“It wasn’t to be for her, so we went our separate ways and that is that.”
Speaking frankly about the situation, Jenas said of why he and Ellie broke up: “The reality is, me and my wife haven’t split up because I sent some text messages to some people at work.
“We had issues for a period of time, it all comes to a head and you eventually make a decision to say, as adults, we will be better parents for our children if we just remain friends and that’s it.”—Sun
