Rylan Clark has made a candid admission about his divorce from Dan Neal during an appearance on ITV's The Assembly. The 37-year-old TV personality, who split from his husband in 2021 after six years of marriage, faced difficult questions about the separation in the upcoming episode.
The Assembly's Unflinching Questions
The Assembly, an interview series now in its second run, has featured notable figures such as Sir Stephen Fry, Nicola Sturgeon, Sir Lenny Henry, Anna Maxwell Martin, and Aitch. The show asks questions that go beyond typical chat show or political interviews. Rylan's episode airs on ITV1 and ITVX at 10pm on Sunday, May 24.
Honesty and Infidelity
During the episode, a participant named Cameron asked Rylan: "When you told your husband you cheated on him, he divorced you. Is honesty always the best policy?" Rylan, caught off guard, responded: "Oh wow. Yeah, I think it is. I'm okay admitting I'm in the wrong, because actually I don't deal well with guilt and I don't deal well with secrets. It made me so ill, like so ill. It sounds a terrible thing to say, but I'm glad it happened."
When asked what he missed about Dan, Rylan paused and said: "Do you know, I never think about him. So, this is like, my whole body just went [tense]. I miss feeling like I've got it all. I thought I had life done - I've got the job, I've got the family, I've got the marriage, I've got the car, I've got the house. I thought I had it sussed. I didn't have anything sussed. I didn't know what was a real relationship, and I can look back now and know that I don't regret anything. I don't regret anything, so I'll leave that up to your imagination."
Reflections on the Marriage Breakdown
During a break, Rylan told his make-up artist: "I'm so glad I did this. But yeah, [the] Dan questions, I was like [surprised] - I don't even say his name." He later reflected on the collapse of his marriage and the subsequent breakdown he experienced. "When my marriage ended, you know that term when someone says, 'To pull the rug from under you?' That's the only way I can describe it. It's like someone went like that and I fell over, and I couldn't get back up. [It was] like I broke both my arms and legs," he revealed. "I thought I wasn't going to get out of it. I went back to live with my mum because I didn't want to be in my house, because there were too many memories of things in there."
Current Relationship
Rylan is now in a relationship with Kennedy Bates, who works in the fairground industry. The couple went public after Rylan shared photos of their Maldives holiday in January. On The Assembly, he joked about his mother's reaction: "When I first started dating Kennedy, and I told [my mum] about him, she was like, 'He's handsome,' and he is handsome. And then she was like, 'So, has anything happened?' And I'm like, 'Shut up! Shut up!'"
Rylan's episode of The Assembly airs at 10pm on ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday, May 24.
