Reminiscing about the very early days of their relationship, Amanda Holden says that her first feeling about Les Dennis was that he needed “mothering.”. In her autobiography No Holding Back, the BGT star tells how they were very much opposites: “At first he thought I was loud, overconfident and a bit brash, which was probably true,” she revealed, adding: "I thought he was a bit of a miserable sod.”.
But there was a tender side to Amanda’s feelings about the comedian who was some 16 years her senior: “He seemed sad, quiet and troubled and I instinctively wanted to help,” Amanda wrote. The couple had met backstage at Bournemouth's Pavilion Theatre, where they were both appearing in a production of The Sound of Music. The cast would socialise together, often going bowling on their days off, and Amanda found herself chatting with Les more and more.
Les opened up to his younger co-star about the beak-up of his marriage to first wife Lynne – who he had wed just three years after Amanda was born – and his guilt about how rarely he saw his son Philip. Amanda, who turns 54 today (Sunday, February 16) and Les were purely platonic friends for a long while: “ I don't think I consciously fancied him at this stage,” she recalled. Over time their relationship became closer and in 1995, some two years after their first meeting, they married. Sadly, the couple separated five years later after it emerged that Amanda had been cheating on Les with her Happy Birthday Shakespeare co-star Neil Morrissey.
Attempting to face public curiosity about the break-up head-on, Les signed up for the second series of celebrity High Brother in 2002. He later described his time in the BB House as "not one of his wisest moves". After news of their affair broke, Amanda told Daily Mail that the intense public interest in the collapse of her marriage was the "worst time of her life". She said: “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.".
