Dec Donnelly: 'Dating is so hard – girls always know more about me'

(Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Declan Donnelly has said finding love was tough because potential girlfriends already knew too much about him before they even met.

The Britain's Got Talent host said that being one half of Geordie presenting duo Ant and Dec held him back when looking for love because it meant he couldn't go on a proper blind date.

Dec explained about being single: "It was one of those things. I thought, God! It is really hard to meet girls. People would always try and set me up, which was awkward. You can't set me up on a blind date because she will automatically know more about me."

The Britain's Got Talent presenter has now got together with his manager of more than 10 years, Ali Astall (pictured), who has moved in with him.

He said: "I think we've always been attracted to each other, but it has always been that thing of we work together. This is the first time we've given it a try. We always hung out.

"When she was single and I was single we'd go out for dinner on Valentine's night together because we didn't have partners. This year we went out as a couple."

Ant McPartlin, who has been married to Lisa Armstrong for eight years, added: "Now he's got to pay out for the whole meal."

Asked if he'd be getting married soon, Dec said: "I don't know. We'll see. My mam doesn't give me any hassle. I'd like to get married one day."

Dec previously had a brief flirtation with former Pussycat Doll and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! contestant Ashley Roberts who presented with them on the last series of Saturday Night Takeaway.

He revealed: "There was a spark in as much as we got along and we had a laugh about it. I didn't try anything - it would have been awkward."

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.