Jermaine Jenas faced questioning from the presenters of Good Morning Britain during a recent live broadcast, marking his first television interview since being sacked by the BBC.
The 43-year-old former footballer appeared on the ITV show on Friday, June 12, nearly two years after his dismissal from the corporation. The former Match of the Day regular was fired following claims that he sent unsolicited texts to a female staff member on The One Show, which he co-hosted from 2020 to 2024. It was later reported that multiple women had come forward regarding explicit messages he sent to colleagues.
Jenas sat down with presenters Ranvir Singh and Kate Garraway to break his silence. During the discussion, he stated: "I'd reached a point recently where there was a lot of uncertainty in my life, a lot of fear in terms of the direction, in terms of where it was going. It's been a tough two-year period, in particular for my family. I got to this point where I was like, 'I feel like I need to start speaking.'"
He continued: "I've lost everything, essentially. My job, my family, everything was kind of taken away from me. And that's not for me to decide the punishment, but that's exactly what happened - it's what I had to face."
Jenas also said he had focused on protecting his family from criticism, prompting Ranvir to ask: "I notice you don't mention the women who you were texting, and who accused you of sending unsolicited, perhaps even videos or text messages, that they did not want, and did not expect from you. Do you have an apology to them?"
Jenas responded: "I've always apologised. I don't think that's something I've never done. I've always apologised to everybody that was involved in it, whether it was the women who I was messaging and who were messaging me. I wasn't given the opportunity to sit in front of anybody and really apologise to anybody, and that's fine. There's a duty of care around the situation."
Ranvir then asked: "But do you recognise that you were in the wrong?" Jenas replied: "100 per cent," before adding: "It was something I shouldn't have been doing, but also, this was a marital thing more than anything, I need to apologise to my wife."
Later, Ranvir remarked: "You're sort of skirting around what you've learned, but you've mentioned about the fact that you were in a position of power. And that for some reason, you thought this was consensual, but clearly these women did not want to receive what you were sending them." Jenas interjected: "I'm not skirting around anything, Ranvir. I'm more than happy to have the conversation, which is why I'm here. I'm not here to be defending myself in any way, shape or form. I know what I did was wrong and accept the punishments, so nobody's skirting around the responsibility of what I did. I know what I did and I know what I did was wrong, so I don't understand where this line of questioning's coming from."
When Ranvir asked him to offer guidance to other men in positions of authority, Jenas responded: "I'm not here to dictate to people. I understand why you have to come up with this line of questioning, and it's completely fine. And if you feel like I've not been punished enough, then go ahead and keep going." Ranvir clarified: "No, no, I'm not saying that. I just find it's interesting," with Jenas interjecting: "But you've accused me of skirting around the issue. I'm not skirting around the issue."
As the interview concluded, the presenters read a statement from a BBC spokesperson: "We do not comment on individuals, but we will always look at any issues raised with us and take the action as appropriate." Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV1 and ITVX at 6am.
