Back in 2012 he shocked fans when he announced he had split from wife Clare Fellows after a 23-year marriage.
And now Ainsley Harriott has admitted being in the spotlight and considered a ‘national treasure’ partly contributed to their divorce.
The former Ready, Steady Cook host, 67, said being a famous face is ‘difficult for partners’ as they are forced to ‘share’ their other half ‘all the time.’
‘It’s other people who put you into that category, you don’t put yourself in there,’ he told Rylan Clark on his How to Be in the Spotlight podcast, when asked how he felt about being a ‘national treasure.’
‘You’re not someone who brings negativity, you’re someone who brings a smile to them, so most of the time people approach me or if I’m in my supermarket and they bash their trolley into mine… it’s always a lovely moment.
Ainsley Harriott has admitted being in the spotlight and considered a ‘national treasure’ partly contributed to their divorce
The former Ready, Steady Cook host, 67, said being a famous face is ‘difficult for partners’ as they are forced to ‘share’ their other half ‘all the time’ (pictured in 2008)
‘I smile and have little moment with them.’
He said the downside, however, was the impact it had on his wife, a costume designer he met in a clothes shop.
‘I think it’s difficult for partners, it was certainly difficult for my ex so I think that probably contributed to our break up,’ he said.
‘Because you’re sharing that person that you love all the time and that’s really hard. We’ve all been there, a lot of people in the industry have been there. You feel divided.’
Despite the downsides, he said it was a ‘lovely, lovely’ feeling when he received his MBE in 2020 and has a ‘studio at home full of prizes and awards.’
He added: ‘I’ve always just enjoyed people so being in the spotlight is being able to be in a position where you can respond positively with people, give people that feedback.
‘Being in the spotlight for me, considering I’ve been doing it 30 years, I’m comfortable with it.’
Harriott, who has two grown-up children with his ex-wife, admitted back in 2020 that he still has ‘love’ for her but has moved on with a new partner.
Despite the downsides to fame, Ainsley said it was a ‘lovely, lovely’ feeling when he received his MBE in 2020 and has a ‘studio at home full of prizes and awards’
‘I still have love and feelings for my ex-wife, that never stops because she gave me the most important things in my life, and there is a respect there. But everyone moves on, and that’s fine,’ he told The Mirror.
‘I have a partner now and I’m enjoying having love and getting to share my life with someone, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?
‘Although she always says to me, ‘I’d prefer it if you didn’t talk about me, thanks darling.’
Harriott, who currently presents Ainsley’s Taste of Malta, said he has been more pigeon-holed as a chef in his career than his white counterparts.
‘I was known as the ‘fast fun food cook guy’ that made everybody jolly and stuff like that and you get there and we all know, everyone who’s involved in TV and media knows that people put you in a box,’ he said.
‘Even though I was classically trained as a chef and had travelled the world, I said to people, ‘Just because you’re a black man, yeah I know how to do jerk chicken but I was trained, I was classically trained.’
‘And they think, “Oh a bit of jerk chicken, rice and peas”, and I’m thinking, “Do you turn around to Jamie [Oliver] and say Jamie are you going to cook us something from Essex – you’re cooking Italian food, what you doing that for?” It’s that kind of comparison.’
