Ant Middleton hits out at SAS: Who Dares Wins one year after departure from Channel 4 series
Middleton was dropped from series due to his ‘views and values’
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Your support makes all the difference.Former SAS: Who Dares Wins star Ant Middleton has claimed that celebrities are turning down the show now he’s no longer a part of it.
It was announced in March 2021 that Channel 4 had cut ties with the former soldier turned TV personality, who had featured on the show since 2015,
A spokesperson for the channel released a statement at the time which said: “Following a number of discussions Channel 4 and Minnow Films have had with him in relation to his personal conduct, it has become clear that our views and values are not aligned and we will not be working with him again.”
Despite this, Middleton claimed it was his decision to step away from the series in a post he shared on Twitter and Instagram on Monday (1 March).
Days after Channel 4’s announcement, four women accused Middleton of making “lewd and suggestive” comments to them while working as crew members on the show.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Middleton claimed that reports of a Channel 4 investigation into “inappropriate” comments he allegedly made on the set of the show were “smoke and mirrors”, and described things he said as “military banter”.
Middleton, in a new interview with The Sun, has now said he no longer watches the series, which he called “a lot softer now”.
“A lot of celebrities ring me and tell me they’ve been asked to do the show but won’t, partly out of loyalty to me and partly because they say, ‘what would I get out of it?’,” he claimed.
Middleton still appears on the Australian version of the series, but was replaced on the UK version by Rudy Reyes.
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He said: “People think you can just put another person in front of the camera, but it’s really hard to deliver and come across as authentic. There’s only one Ant Middleton.”
A spokesperson for Middleton told The Independent at the time he was accused of inappropriate comments: “Ant has worked on TV sets around the world for many years and has never at any point been accused of speaking inappropriately by anyone. He has only ever been informed of these allegations, which he wholeheartedly and emphatically rejects, via the media.
“If anyone felt that he did say anything verbally offensive we would have expected a formal process of review but no such discussion has ever taken place either via any of the networks he works for or via bodies such as Bectu.”