Jermaine Jenas’ father has revealed the former footballer was in a ‘state’ following his recent sacking from the BBC.
The ex-Tottenham, Newcastle and England star was axed by the broadcaster following allegations of inappropriate behaviour, much to his dismay.
Jenas has admitted to sending unsolicited text messages to two female members of staff at the BBC. He’s also revealed his wife, Ellie Penfold, is ‘raging’ as he battles to save his marriage.
And his father, Dennis, has now claimed the 41-year-old was in a ‘state’ after they spoke over the phone following his shock dismissal.
“I called JJ as soon as I saw what had happened,” he said.
“He’s my little man, my trouper, my main guy.
“I left the UK a long time ago but I’ve kept in contact with him, always.
“He was very upset of course. He did not think he had been treated well by the BBC.
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“I didn’t ask him what he had done as I knew whatever it was it wasn’t illegal.
“I tried to give him a boost and the support he needed. He was in a state and needed it at the time.”
While Jenas has accepted his bad behaviour, the presenter is determined to fight the BBC’s decision to give him the boot.
He has lawyers working on his behalf, though the Beeb believe they have enough justification for sacking Jenas after compiling a thorough dossier of evidence against him.
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Jenas, speaking recently to The Sun, revealed it was difficult for him to break the news of his actions to wife Ellie.
He said he initially hoped that he’d be suspended from the BBC, rather than sacked.
Jenas said: “I was obviously hoping that I maybe would have got a suspension of some sort.
“I had to tell her by Monday evening because I knew then that I’d been fired.
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“I just said, ‘I’ve been sacked from the BBC’.
“She said, ‘What for?’, and I said, ‘For sending text messages that weren’t appropriate to two girls’.
“Ellie is absolutely raging. She’s human. When I see her now, she is just making sure the children are OK.”
Jenas also insisted that the text messages he sent weren’t of a sexual or explicit nature, too.
“That was not the case,” he added. “It was just a grim situation. You’re having to sit there and listen to what you’ve said. I’m not proud of anything.
“It’s embarrassing, and obviously there’s four people there on a Zoom call, basically, just listening to all of this, and reading out my messages. I think I was in shock at the time, there was a lot to process.
“But I’m the married one, I’m at fault, and I was sort of playing this blame game in my head.
“The overriding panic by a mile was that I could lose my family.”
