TV presenter Steve Jones says 'it's been brutal' after hardest years of his life
TV presenter Steve Jones has praised his "amazing" wife after experiencing a "brutal" fertility journey. Opening up about their experience to Richard and Izzy Hammond on their Who Are We Now podcast Steve shared that his wife Phylicia Jackson went through a hard time with fertility and endometriosis treatment.
The pair married in 2014 and went through a "tough time" trying to start a family. He shared how Phylicia went through years of multiple surgeries only to be told the conclusion "it ain't happening" last year. "It's been brutal," he shared candidly.
Steve explained: "It's been a tough, tough few years. I mean, probably the hardest thing I've ever… You know, life's thrown me a few curveballs over the years, but this is one of the hardest things I've ever been through, just seeing Phylicia try to start that family. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter
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He continued: “To see her put her body through everything she’s put it through due to endometriosis, the multiple surgeries, and for the conclusion to be it ain't happening, which was the news we got I think last year. It's been brutal.”
While the outcome wasn't what they had both hoped for, Steve shared praised his wife for the bravery she has shown. He said: "I never thought I could love her more than I already did, but to see her go through it all just being so stoic and, you know, dignified and strong. She's an amazing woman, just incredible," adding: “I'm so lucky to have her and with kids, without kids. I just don't care, as long as she's in my life. She's an amazing person.”
Steve also reflected on his career, and spoke candidly about how difficult he found it to find work after working on the X-Factor USA. Reflecting on the start of his career, he said: "I went to this audition, I sat down with a producer who pretended to be Bon Jovi or something, and asked a bunch of stupid questions,” he said “And they were like, ‘Great, don't call us. We'll call you.’ I'm like, ‘Okay.’ That afternoon, the head of the company called me, and he said, ‘You got the job, starting in two weeks!’”
Admitting that he is fearless when it comes to taking on new opportunities, Steve says he adopted his ‘f*** it mentality’ after witnessing a heartbreaking accident in his teens. “I was on a bike ride when I was 19, and a friend of mine, he came off his bike and he died. And my brother Jonathan was there, and when you see something like that, it just changes everything,” he said. “It was heartbreaking, and I was in a terrible place. But it instilled this, if I can use these words, a f*** it mentality. When you see life taken away so quickly and so horrendously, you just think, ‘I'm going to go for it.’”
Steve went onto admit that he's "not allowed to speak about what happened" regarding his experience of presenting the USA X-Factor. “I must admit, when I went to the States to present American X Factor in 2011, and that did not go well. I'm not allowed to speak about what happened. But I didn't enjoy the experience. And after it ended, I came back to Britain, and that was a difficult period."
He explained when he returned to the UK he had to "bend the knee" to find presenting work. “And I get it. You know, to have to bend the knee, you’ve got to do a bit of crawling, because I'm like, ‘Bye bye, I'm going to America everyone!’ That wasn't how I did it, but that's how it looked. And half the time, people didn’t even realise I was back. They're like, ‘Oh man, I thought he moved to America?’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, but I'm back! And that was a three years ago!’”
