Carl Fogarty: 'Ant McPartlin doesn't need rehab – he needs to man up'
Ant McPartlin needs to "man up, grow up and be told straight", former World Superbike champion Carl Fogarty has said, in an interview criticising the troubled ITV presenter.
Fogarty, who met McPartlin while competing on his show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here in 2014, told the Daily Star he thought McPartlin was wrong to return to rehab after his recent car accident.
"He got in a car p-----d – don't do that, it's not right," the 52-year-old racing driver said. "You don't need to go to rehab to be told to sort that out, you know that's wrong and you shouldn't be doing that. And people around him need to be firm with him."
McPartlin was fined £86,000 after pleading guilty to drink-driving – the UK's highest ever fine for driving under the influence – and said he is seeking help for his "alcohol and emotional issues". He has stepped back from his TV commitments, leaving his regular co-host Dec Donnelly to present ITV's Saturday Night Takeaway without him.
In a statement given to the police, McPartlin, 42, said he was “ashamed and mortified”, and hoped that he “might be forgiven by all the people he feels he has let down so terribly”.
Fogarty added: "He's got everybody running around after him going: 'Oh it's a shame for him'... Hang on a minute – grow up, sort yourself out and take responsibility. Don't go running off to rehab every five minutes when something goes wrong."
McPartlin previously spent two months in rehab in 2017, announcing that June last year that he was seeking treatment for his alcohol abuse and an addiction to proscription drugs.
