The Britain’s Got Talent judge has shared an emotional chat with best friend Alan Carr on their BBC show, admitting she ‘made mistakes’ in her first marriage
Monde Mwitumwa and Zara Zubeidi
16:25, 13 Jan 2026Updated 16:25, 13 Jan 2026
Amanda shared an emotional chat with best friend Alan Carr (Image: BBC / Voltage TV)
Amanda Holden has revealed her regrets surrounding her divorce from first husband Les Dennis. The television presenter had a heartfelt conversation with her closest friend Alan Carr, during which she acknowledged she’d “made mistakes” in the past but these experiences moulded her into the person she is today.
Amanda and Les married in 1995 before going their separate ways in 2002. The pair divorced the year after. Their marriage breakdown occurred two years following revelations of her affair with co-star Neil Morrissey.
During the most recent episode of their BBC One travel programme, Amanda and Alan’s Greek Job, Amanda revealed: “I mean, obviously we’ve both been through a divorce, we’ve both made mistakes and as much as I regret hurting people maybe, or causing chaos, it shapes you to who you are in this moment. And I think life is too short to have regrets.”
Discussing his own regrets, Alan – who is presently single – confessed: “I mean it’s not decisions for me but knowing your worth and the amount of times I’ve been walked over and people have demeaned me,” reports the Mirror.
Amanda and Les tied the knot in 1995 before separating in 2002(Image: Mirrorpix)
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Amanda replied: “You are soft, you’re so lovely,” as he continued: “There’s time that I’d wished I’d said no, I wish I’d been a bit bolder and a bit stronger.”
She went on: “After a divorce, what you do think is that you are never gonna find love again. Do you sort of trust yourself to fall in love and make a good decision about somebody for the rest of your life?” Alan confessed to having trust issues, stating: “Yeah, it’d be nice wouldn’t it? I don’t really trust anyone really, that’s the trouble. I think that is my main thing.”
Amanda is currently happily married to Chris Hughes and they have two daughters together – Lexi, born in 2006, and Hollie, born in 2012.
On the other hand, Alan was in a relationship with Paul Drayton for 14 years. The couple tied the knot in 2018 after a decade together, with Adele officiating the ceremony at her home in LA.
Amanda is now happily married to Chris Hughes, with whom she shares two daughters(Image: Instagram)
However, their relationship unfortunately deteriorated during lockdown and they divorced in 2022. This candid conversation between Amanda and Alan follows Amanda’s admission that she suspected Alan had done well on Celebrity Traitors, as she hadn’t heard from him for two weeks.
The Britain’s Got Talent judge deduced her close friend’s success when Alan, 49, didn’t contact her during the show’s production. Given that the comedian usually calls Amanda daily, the actress became suspicious during the spring when filming took place at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands.
Alan went on to win The Celebrity Traitors but, although he wasn’t allowed to disclose this, Amanda, 54, had an inkling he had at least “done well” on the programme. Speaking recently, she said: “I knew he must have done well because I didn’t speak to him for two weeks, normally we speak every day.
Alan Carr says he finds it hard to trust people after his split from husband Paul Drayton(Image: PA)
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“He’s been around for so long, but everyone’s suddenly like, ‘Oh, I love Alan Carr’, and I think, ‘How is he a new thing to you? He’s always been this brilliant’.”
Amanda, a mother of three, shared: “My daughter Holly, who’s always loved him, said to me, ‘Everyone’s asking me about Alan’, and I say to them, ‘You’ve met Alan, he was in the back garden at our party, and you weren’t bothered about him then’.
“Alan’s literally brought them a cup of tea in bed or been on holiday with them. But now they’re really into him, it’s brought a whole new generation because of all the TikToks and the memes, which is lovely.”
Alan recently suggested that Amanda, known for her role in the popular drama Wild at Heart, would be “great” on The Celebrity Traitors. Amanda hinted that if she were to participate in the programme, which airs on the BBC, she would want to play the role of a traitor.
Amanda and Alan’s Greek Job is on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
