When talkSPORT bosses received a call from the agent of rising BBC star Jermaine Jenas offering his services as a presenter on their station ten days ago, they couldn’t believe their luck.
After all, Jenas was being tipped by the Corporation as a possible replacement for Gary Lineker when he leaves Match of the Day in the near future.
They were so excited at the prospect of one of broadcasting’s hottest properties gracing their airwaves that they wasted no time in frantically tweaking schedules behind the scenes to find a suitable slot into which to shoehorn the former England footballer-turned-presenter.
But by any measure, the timing of the host’s first broadcast was… unfortunate.
Jermaine Jenas appears on The One Show with Alex Jones
Late on Thursday afternoon, minutes before he was due to go on air (alongside former England team-mate Jermaine Pennant), the broadcaster was made aware (via another News UK outlet) of a rumour that Jenas had been sacked from his £190,000-a-year job at the BBC for sending unsolicited text messages to junior members of staff.
“Broadcast bosses only heard rumours of a problem at the BBC about half an hour before it went on air,” a talkSPORT source told The Associated Press.
And rather than embarrass himself or contact the broadcaster to offer an explanation, Jenas seemed determined to weather the storm and go on air as planned.
“Jermaine didn’t say a word, he clearly thought he could keep it a secret,” says a source. “It certainly takes a lot of courage to do that. He really seemed to think he could fix this somehow, that it would go away if he just kept his head down and got on with his normal life.”
And so it was that, shortly after the show began broadcasting at 4pm, the Mail revealed that the rumours were true and that Jenas had indeed been sacked from the BBC, where he presented The One Show.
In scenes that would have been worthy of a television drama, Jenas, 41, displayed the same levels of determination that had propelled him to the top of his sport (as a midfielder for Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest) and produced a brave performance of patience, calm and skill.
As his cellphone screen lit up and vibrated furiously in front of him – no doubt with friends, family and journalists trying to reach him – Jenas tried to adopt the demeanor of a calm broadcaster.
It was of no use.
As one source told me: “He looked like he was going to throw up.”
“Jermaine’s phone barely stopped vibrating,” the source added. “He was relentless, trying to stay calm as he trembled on the desk in front of him. He kept talking and despite the distractions he sounded incredibly professional. God only knows how he kept talking without completely losing control, but you could see in his eyes that he was worried. But if the star was really nervous, he hasn’t shown it yet.”
He then gave a brief interview to the talkSPORT news presenter where he refused to comment on any of the details of his dismissal.
He said, ‘Look, I can’t talk about it. As you can probably tell, I’m not happy about it.
‘But right now, as things stand, I’m going to have to let the lawyers handle it.
“You know there are two sides to every story, as we all know. That’s all I can say for now.”
TalkSPORT has confirmed he will no longer appear on the show for the “immediate future” and has been sacked by his agent at London-based firm M&C Saatchi, where boss Richard Thompson has been praised across the TV industry for how he transformed it from sportsman to presenter.
It has been a real fall from grace for Jenas, a married father of three who was born in Nottingham and grew up on a council estate and who had outperformed many of his footballing peers to become a TV presenter.
His metamorphosis began in 2014 at BT Sport, when he started out as a football pundit. Showing great promise from the start, he went on to present Match of the Day spin-off show MOTDx, but what made him a household name was his role as presenter of Auntie’s flagship evening magazine programme, The One Show.
After impressing bosses with a couple of guest appearances, he landed the role of co-host of the wholesome show in 2021.
Friendly, engaged and relaxed, he fitted in perfectly on a show that is broadcast into millions of homes every night, and made sure to keep his sporting experience alive by working as a commentator at the European Championships in June.
Jermaine Jenas with his wife Ellie on the red carpet in 2018
In fact, he seemed to fit in so well at the BBC that it is no surprise that he began to set his sights on the career of another English footballer who took to broadcasting like the proverbial duck to water: Gary Lineker.
Lineker himself was so confident that Jenas would be the perfect successor that he joked he was keeping his seat warm for the younger man.
Off-camera, however, the transformation from football pitch to prime-time couch was not as straightforward as it seemed.
Earlier this month, a staff member at The One Show complained that Jenas had sent her explicit text messages and images that she did not want.
And within hours of the corporation announcing on Thursday that he was no longer part of its hosting roster, I was told that other women reached out to share their experiences with him.
As one BBC employee put it: “It turns out his female colleagues didn’t appreciate him as much as he appreciated them.”
In fact, a source close to him said she believes he “sees himself as a ladies’ man” despite being married to former model Ellie Penfold for 13 years. For now, she is said to be supportive of him, but those who know him are quick to point out that could change.
She confessed this to Ellie, who describes herself as a “mum” and “wife” on her Instagram account and has modelled for model Katie Price’s clothing collection.
The couple have three children together – two daughters, Geneva and Olivia, and a baby, Jacob – and live together in a six-bedroom Tudor-style mansion on the north London-Hertfordshire border that the star bought for £2.8m in 2006. It features a gym and indoor pool. He also has another daughter called Sancha, 16, from a previous relationship who lives with her mother in the US.
Despite having a family, many would have considered him a “good catch”, and appearing on prime time television magnified the level of fame he had achieved on the pitch.
As one BBC employee noted: “Maybe it’s his football background, but he’s quite used to a bit of attention. He’s a good-looking guy who’s at the top of his game, rich, successful, famous – if a woman shows a bit of interest, he’s not shy about flirting back. She thinks he’s a lovely guy.”
Indeed, in an interview 16 months ago, Jenas revealed that he and Ellie argued over the amount of socialising associated with her role on One Show. He also admitted that the pair had to sort out their differences and that they enjoyed holidays separately. In the short term, it seems likely that Jenas’s shifts as One Show presenter will be taken by another co-presenter, Roman Kemp. But the repercussions will continue for the BBC. This latest sacking, coming so soon after the Huw Edwards scandal (when the broadcaster failed to reveal that its highest-paid newsreader and former News at Ten presenter had been arrested on child pornography charges when they found out about it last November), is a humiliation for the BBC.
Not only that, but Jenas doesn’t seem to have any intention of leaving quietly and intends to fight.
Indeed, he feels he is being made a scapegoat for the BBC’s failings with Edwards and the scandal still surrounding Strictly Come Dancing, which sacked one of its professional dancers, Graziano Di Prima, for kicking his partner Zara McDermott in rehearsals.
Jenas believes he has done nothing wrong. In fact, he claims he has been given a “raw deal” and has vowed to clear his name.
He has instructed lawyers to consider taking action against the BBC.
A friend of Jenas’s tells me: “He insists that it’s not fair, that he doesn’t accept the situation and that he will fight to clear his name. He firmly believes that things would have been different if the BBC had not faced a huge scandal, but he also insists that he hasn’t done much.”
‘He keeps saying there are two sides to the story, but that his lawyers have advised him not to tell anyone the details so they can prepare a case to send to the BBC.’
Meanwhile, the BBC is standing firm. Director-General Tim Davie is “deeply unhappy” with the former footballer and other executives are “disgusted and disappointed” by his behaviour.
They remain “absolutely confident” that they were right to fire him and, after extensive consultation with their own employment lawyers, were able to dismiss him without issue given the evidence they saw.
“Good luck to Jermaine and his legal team,” they said.
“If he wants a payout, he will face some very tough lawyers. As far as the BBC’s top brass are concerned, he was given incredible opportunities and he has only himself to blame.”
