19 November
EXCLUSIVE: JAN THE WIFE SWAPPER
She dumped hubby for Red Arrows ace
By Michael Duffy
I’M A Celebrity star Jan Leeming ditched her husband to wed a Red Arrows flying ace in a real-life wife-swap.
In a bizarre twist, the husband she walked out on then married the RAF pilot’s wife.
BBC newsreader Patrick Lunt – the third of Jan’s five ex-husbands – told last night how the switch meant he ended up raising pilot Eric Steenson’s children.
In an exclusive interview, he said: “I wasn’t exactly a happy bunny.”
Jan became one of Britain’s best known newsreaders during her marriage to Patrick. But millions of viewers of the ITV hit I’m A Celebrity have been cringing at her jungle antics, including flirting with Toby Anstis, singing like a drowning cat and – yesterday – peeing in the bushes.”
She also got involved in a feud with Phina Oruche.
Patrick, 57, said: “I saw Jan crying on the programme –– well, that’s Jan. She’s an emotional person. It doesn’t surprise me if she has been flirting with Toby Anstis – he is a handsome young man. Jan is a very caring person and has a superb sense of humour.
“But the public are fickle. They dislike her moaning.”
Recalling his turbulent six-year marriage to Jan, Patrick added: “It was sad splitting up, but you have to do the best thing for the children.
“We first met Eric when he was team leader for the Red Arrows – Jan had been asked to fly with them as part of a promotional day for the squadron.”
Jan and Patrick became friends with Eric and his wife Robin. “We would have dinner together and we would go out together like other couples who are good friends.”
But in 1986, as Jan and fellow BBC presenter Patrick’s marriage hit the rocks, she walked out and moved in with Steenson – ending two marriages.
Patrick said: “My relationship with Robin followed much later – we married four years later.
“It was difficult for the children, but you do the best you can. Eric and I always got along well and we still do, but his children lived with their mum and me.”
Now 64, Jan had her only child, Jonathan, now 25, with Patrick. The couple had joint custody and remained in regular contact. Jan and pilot Eric split in 1995, seven years after they married.
Patrick says: “I’m very sorry indeed to hear of anyone’s marriage breaking down, as I was sorry about ours breaking down.”
Jan married her first husband, BBC sound engineer John Staple, in 1961 when she was 19 and he was 33. Her second marriage, to estate agent Jeremy Gilchrist lasted just eight months. Patrick and pal Eric were third and fourth, while her fifth marriage to Kent headmaster Chris Russell was short-lived. After an ill-fated relationship with accountant Tommy Dunn, she is single again.
Jan started her career presenting BBC’s Pebble Mill at One in the 1970s, before going on to become a household name as a newsreader in 1980s. “We had some wonderful times or I wouldn’t have married in the first place,” said Patrick. “We had so many laughs together. We did have our disagreements during our marriage, but we were never at each other’s throats.”
“She was on television five or six times a week, recognised in the street wherever she went.
“Things were different then – this might revive that for her. She enjoyed the celebrity.
“But I think everybody has some moments when they want to be private and that’s important to her. I daresay maintaining her privacy will be important to her on I’m a Celebrity.”
Patrick is a freelance newsreader at BBC Radio 2 and performs voice-over work around the world. Watching his ex-wife’s Bushtucker trial flop at home in High Wycombe, Bucks, he said: “Jan is a gritty woman, not afraid of standing up for herself.
“She’s a strong, ambitious and capable woman and once hosted the Eurovision song contest in front of an audience of 300 million people.
“If she can handle that, she can handle the jungle.
“But she has a great side too. She has an infectious giggle.
“I’ll certainly be buying her a glass of champagne if she wins."
“As for weeing in the jungle – she probably just wasn’t satisfied with the facilities!”
Sundaymirror
