A BBC Radio 2 star has lifted the lid on his first marriage, claiming that he was in a ‘love square’ with his ex-wife and their neighbours
A BBC Radio 2 star has admitted he and his wife were in a ‘love square’.
Tony Blackburn, 82, has admitted to cheating on his first wife, Tessa Wyatt, with their neighbour while she was having an affair with the neighbour’s husband.
The veteran DJ, who claims to have slept with 250 women, made the revelation on Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast and told the presenter he’d had an affair after he got married.
When asked to lift the lid on his relationship with Tessa, Tony said the couple were in a ‘love square’, sensationally claiming that both he and his then wife had an affair with their married neighbours. He explained: “She didn’t know I was having an affair with the next door neighbour, and then she was having an affair with her [the neighbour’s] husband.”
According to Tony, who has been married to Debbie Thompson since 1992, Tessa only discovered his affair when she read his autobiography, which he branded as ‘awful’. The couple got hitched in 1972 and the following year welcomed a son together, Simon, before they called time on their marriage in 1977.
Claiming they had got married “too young”, the Radio 2 star told Gyles: “She left me for Richard O’ Sullivan. We got married too young. I could never understand why she married me in the first place because she was very beautiful.”
Opening up about his book, which was written by a ghost writer and revealed he had slept with 250 women, Tony conceded: “It was too honest.” He said: “My parents didn’t like it very much. It was written by somebody called Cheryl Garnsey. She said: ‘This is OK, but there should be a bit more sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll in it.’
“So I said: ‘I’ve done the rock ‘n’ roll bit but not the drugs’. So, she just said to me: ‘How many people have you slept with?’ and I stupidly told her.” Claiming he never read the book before it was published, Tony concluded: “And it was published. And I never read the book before it went out.”
Tony has been a broadcaster for over 60 years and was the first person to be heard on BBC Radio 1, opening the station on 30 September 1967. Celebrating an impressive 60 years in radio last year, the DJ was probed about hanging up his headphones during a chat on Lorraine.
Kate Garraway, filling in for the Scot, remarked: “You don’t stop! You’ve got no intention of retiring and you keep moving.” To which Tony responded: “No, I think it’s very important if you like what you’re doing, and I love what I’m doing, I love touring around with the band and everything.
“We’ve got a seven-piece band, two singers, and very good singers. I talk about the past and things like that, pirate ships and have a joke with the audience.
“So basically, I love what I’m doing so what’s the point in retiring? I love doing Radio 2.”
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