Jermaine Jenas denies new claim he bombarded waitress with unsolicited explicit texts while working at World Cup for BBC
JERMAINE JENAS has denied new claims he sent a waitress unsolicited explicit pics while working at the World Cup for the BBC.
A woman, who was a VIP party planner in Qatar, alleged the former footie star pestered her for bikini snaps, before asking “you want my boy now”, as reported by the MailOnline.
It comes after the 41-year-old presenter was sacked by the BBC after admitting to sending “inappropriate texts” to two female co-workers.
Speaking about the BBC incident the married father-of-four previously said he was “ashamed” of his actions and “deeply sorry”.
And a source close to Jermaine told The Sun: “Jermaine completely denies these texts were unsolicited. They were between two consenting adults.”
The woman who claimed she was bombarded by Jenas for bikini pictures alleged he sent pressing WhatsApp messages.
She said some read “I wanna see it now” and “you know what it’s like when you’re away”.
The 38-year-old met him December 2022 at a five-star hotel restaurant in Doha.
The woman gave her number to Jermaine after he booked a table.
The source close to him said: “She handed Jermaine her number and was trying to arrange to meet him, whilst desperate for him to bring his VIP mates to her parties.
“Funny now more than two years on the texts were not wanted.”
The same source added: “Jermaine has been working hard to start rebuilding his marriage and help his kids go back to school over the last few weeks.
“The family have been battered with media attention and also a few false claims with people looking to cash in on the situation.
“He is mortified by the pain he has caused as he made clear in his interview with The Sun.”
It comes after the former One Show host broke down in his sit down interview with The Sun, and said: “I have let myself down, my family, friends and colleagues down, and I owe everyone an apology — especially the women with whom I was messaging. I am so, so sorry.
“I think it would be fair to say I have a problem. I know I self- sabotage and have a self-destructive streak when it comes to my relationship especially, and I know I need help. And I am getting help.
“I have made a lot of mistakes, and I am asking myself a lot of questions at the moment. I know there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and it will be hard.”
Jenas’ dad also opened up about how his son is fighting for his marriage to wife Ellie.
Dennis Jenas said the scandal had hit the family hard.
He told The Mirror: “He knows he shouldn’t have done what he did and he wants to keep his family together and he knows he has hurt his wife and kids.
“I called JJ as soon as I saw what had happened. He’s my little man, my trouper, my main guy.
“He did not think he had been treated well by the BBC. I tried to give him a boost and the support he needed. He was in a state and needed it at the time.”
Ellie has kicked him out of their bedroom the couple shared at their £1million home in Hertfordshire.
The pair share three children together, two daughters Geneva and Olivia and a son called Jacob, while Jenas has an older daughter, Sancha, from a previous relationship who lives in the United States with her mother.
Jenas has also now hired a team of lawyers to assess the BBC’s handling of his sacking, and whether confidential information was leaked.
The former football star is looking to sue the broadcaster and confirmed a legal letter has already been sent to execs by his newly-hired representatives.
He said his anxiety has rocketed, and is concerned senior staff in different departments within the BBC — including sport and entertainment — appeared to be openly discussing his dismissal when it should have been kept confidential.
An emotional Jenas told The Sun: “The handling of the situation wasn’t great. It was quick — and hell.”
He also slammed the dismissal process, which happened over a Zoom call while he was on holiday in Spain with wife Ellie and their three kids.
The sacked Match of the Day host further confessed he tried to apologise to the two female colleague but was blocked by the BBC.
He told The Sun: “When it was all unfolding and I knew I was losing my job, I asked HR if I could contact the two women directly and apologise to both of them.
“But because of the legal process, I wasn’t allowed.
“I really want to apologise from the bottom of my heart in terms of what I’ve put them through.”
Addressing the women directly, he said: “I’m genuinely sorry for what I’ve done to you.
“I always thought it was consensual and a two-way thing.”
Jermaine Jenas is victim of a brutal, chaotic cancellation by a haunted BBC
Comment by Clemmie Moodie
EVERY now and then, a story has “cut-through”.
My phone will ping relentlessly as friends, family, celebs, industry types and, once, a minor royal, all demand the lowdown on a scoop.
Jermaine Jenas’s unceremonious sacking by the BBC is one such story. (Phillip Schofield’s “I’m not a groomer”/frantic vaping interview; Matt “hands, face, space” Hancock; Huw Edwards being a paedophile; and, bizarrely, Molly-Mae Hague’s dumping of Tommy Fury, are others.)
Perhaps it’s because Match Of The Day, one of the shows he will now no longer appear on, is a national institution.
And The One Show, a fluffy magazine-style entertainment programme, covers bases for those who hate football.
Whatever your televisual interest, it was hard to get away from Jermaine Jenas.
Today, you’ll be lucky to find him anywhere. Because in very W1A fashion, Auntie has gone into an absolute tailspin.
First, a huge mural in Manchester’s Media City, featuring Jermaine alongside other BBC Sport stars including Gary Lineker and Alex Scott, was hastily removed.
And today, he’s finally gone from the official One Show homepage, no longer beaming alongside Alex Jones and Roman Kemp. Instead, replaced by a generic programme logo.
(Presumably, some runner somewhere is feverishly looking to replace said logo with a more lively photo showing Alex Jones with someone, ANYONE, else).
Now the Corporation is said to be hastily going through the archives, randomly removing bits and pieces of Jermaine.
Probably not the bits his poor wife wants removed RN, but still.
This seems an extreme, knee-jerk and unnecessary airbrushing from history of a man who sent some dodgy sexts.
As Jermaine himself said on Friday, he didn’t break any laws. I conducted the interview, and he was clearly still shell-shocked.
Rattled, teary and a bit shaky. The Sun did not pay him.
And he could have hidden behind a bland statement on his socials, or done a contrite piece to camera on Instagram.
One where he wouldn’t have been asked, on the record, if he had broken the law by “sending any d**k pics”.
He didn’t, he insisted, calmly answering a mildly mortifying question.
He is refusing to hide from his mistakes. But the BBC is hiding him.
By deleting the former England player from its history books, they are effectively putting him in the same moralistic camp as two other erased men — Jimmy Savile and Huw Edwards.
Two actual paedophiles whom they long feted, promoted and over-paid. Indeed, Edwards was given a wage rise and kept on the payroll months after his arrest over indecent images of children.
In fact, the newsreader’s announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II remains available for all to see, deemed, as it is, a matter of historical and cultural significance.
While Jermaine’s insightful analysis of Bournemouth’s leaky back four is unlikely to be one for posterity, neither is it likely to offend or corrupt.
Unless, perhaps, you’re one quarter of Bournemouth FC’s leaky back four. As one commentator observed, the BBC is suffering from a severe case of Edwards PTSD — and clearly Jermaine is the fall guy.
To be clear, what he did was wrong. Not only morally, but professionally. Only a fool, or serial philanderer, would disagree.
But until recently, time and time again BBC stars have been getting away with such bad behaviour with a mere slap on the wrist. Not a P45.
What the BBC is doing now, expunging Jermaine from history, smacks of something Kim Jong Un and his state cronies would do. Not the so-called liberal Left.
It is also creating a terrifying precedent.
And there must be a plethora of well-known people out there living in fear that their every misdemeanour will come back to haunt them.
One inappropriate WhatsApp screenshot and posted online, one drunken, flirty comment said to a colleague shared.
But in the wake of the Huw Edwards and Strictly Come Dancing scandals — with a seemingly never-ending misconduct probe continuing into the latter — the BBC simply cannot afford another mis-step.
In the case of Jermaine, they were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.
They played safe, and perhaps more will emerge that will entirely validate their decision.
Whatever the truth of his firing, the way it was handled has been mildly chaotic.
An internal memo confirming his departure was sent out after The Sun broke the story,
And now the star’s lawyers have sent legal letters to the Beeb, threatening to sue.
Whatever the case, this is cancel culture. And these are worrying times for the entertainment industry at large.