Dec Donnelly's Biography

Who is Dec Donnelly?

Better known as Dec in Ant & Dec, his working life has become so intertwined with Ant McPartlin's that a large part of their life histories are the same:

Acting in Byker Grove, their musical act PJ & Duncan that became reincarnated as Ant & Dec, presenting children's television, and then presenting many popular programmes often with Ant and Dec in the title, as well as I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and Britain's Got Talent.

Ant and Dec have consistently proved a success with critics and public alike. Their awards include two trophies at the prestigious Golden Rose awards for their Saturday Night Takeaway show in 2004, and the most popular entertainment presenter category at the National Television Awards 2005. In 2005 Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway won the People's Choice at The British Comedy Awards 2005.

In 2003, the BBC had a report about Dec's split with Clare Buckfield.

In March 2006 it was reported that Dec had started going out with 25 year-old Kate Braithwaite from North London.

Ant and Dec starred in the 2006 film, Alien Autopsy.

In May 2008, The Mirror carried an interview with Georgie Thompson, which was partly about her romance with Dec Donnelly.

In 2009 Ant & Dec published their autobiography, Ooh! What a Lovely Pair.

In January 2011, Ant and Dec were voted the best entertainment presenters at the National Television Awards for the 10th consecutive year.

In September 2011, Ant & Dec hosted the ITV series Red Or Black.

In 2013, Ant & Dec re-released Let's Get Ready to Rhumble and it went to number one. It had originally got to number nine in 1994 when it was released under their Byker Grove names PJ and Duncan.

In November 2014, it was revealed that Declan Donnelly was engaged to his manager, Ali Astall.

In 2016 Ant & Dec were awarded OBEs for services to broadcasting and entertainment.

In the same year they signed a new three year contract with ITV.

In March 2018, it was revealed that Dec's wife Ali Astall was pregnant.

Shortly after that, his presenting partner Ant went into rehab after admitting a charge of drink-driving and in August 2018 it was announced that Ant and Dec had postponed 2019's Saturday Night Takeaway, and that Dec would present I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! alone in November 2018.

In October 2019, ITV announced that they had commissioned a two-part series Ant & Dec's DNA Journey.

Subsequent popular programmes included Ant & Dec's Limitless Win.