Les Dennis was 'besotted' with Amanda Holden but thought her cheating was karma

01 October 2023 , 14:09

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Les Dennis was 'besotted' with Amanda Holden but thought her cheating was karma

Strcitly's Les Dennis admits he was besotted with ex-wife Amanda Holden - but believed her cheating was karma for his own web of deceit.

Amanda and Les met during a stage show production of The Sound of Music and fell head over heels in love. The former Family Fortunes host, 69, married the BGT judge, 52, in 1995 when he was 40 and Amanda was just 22. Les admits despite being smitten with Amanda, he worried about their age difference.

He said: "Of course I worried about the age difference, but there was genuine love between us," says Les. "The strange thing is, I did everything I should have done in my first marriage. I was completely faithful and I put our relationship before my career. I was ready to do that."

After eight years of married life, the couple decided to call it quits after Amanda had an affair with Men Behaving Badly's Neil Morrissey. Les believes the heartbreak she suffered in his relationship with the radio host was a kind of karma for his infidelity in his previous marriage to wife Lynne.

Amanda cheated on husband Les with actor Neil Morrissey (Getty Images)

Les and Amanda married in 1995 (Getty Images)

Les has since shared his regret over not being a 'loyal' and 'faithful' husband to Lynne, saying: "It does bother me the way I behaved in my first marriage, because it was completely at odds with how I saw myself," says Les. "I saw myself as a loyal, faithful husband and I still don't quite understand how I became capable of such deceit."

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Amanda was Les' second wife, following his relationship with Lynne Webster, with whom he married in 1974. The couple share a son together. In 2000, she cheated on Les with Neil after the pair starred in Happy Birthday Shakespeare on BBC. When she opened up about her five-week affair, Les decided to give their relationship another chance, but ultimately they called it quits in 2002.

Reflecting on the affair, Amanda has since gone on to reveal it was 'a very dark time' in her life. She told Daily Mail: "I brought it on myself, I appreciate that, but nothing will ever be as bad again. It was a very dark time. It got to the point where I felt I could hardly breathe. Les proved to be my saviour. Ironically. So the person I'd hurt the most in the world was the one who was there for me."

"I don't believe women have affairs for no reason. Neil rightly or wrongly got loads of stick. I feel like it was my fault - I was the one who was married."

She added to Good Housekeeping: "I want to change the general perception of him, as he was very caring and very loving and very worried about me because I lost so much weight. He used to cook for me and look after me and babysit the dogs."

Ayaan Ali