Jermaine Jenas has spoken out for the first time since it was confirmed he would not be returning to present on the BBC.
On Thursday afternoon, The Sun reported that the former England player had been dropped from his usual presenting roles on the flagship shows Match Of The Day and The One Show with immediate effect.
Citing an undisclosed “source”, the tabloid claimed that the corporation made the decision to fire Jermaine after “complaints were raised” about his behaviour behind the scenes.
A BBC spokesperson also said: “We can confirm that he is no longer part of our presenting line-up.”
Unfortunately for Jermaine, he was presenting live on his usual TalkSport slot when the announcement was made, and while he did make it to the end of his show without addressing the furore, he was asked about it on air once the news began.
“Look, I can’t really talk about it,” he said, when asked about his reaction to the news. “I, as you can probably see, I am not happy about it. But currently, as it stands, I’m going to have to let the lawyers deal with it.
“You know, there’s two sides to every story, as we know. So that’s all I can say right now.”
Asked about some of the more specific allegations relating to his conduct, Jermaine said: “Like I said, I’m not happy about this situation. You know, I’m going to be speaking to my lawyers about it is all I can say right now.”
He reiterated these same points when asked several more questions about the situation, as you can hear in the video below from around the 1:15 mark:
HuffPost UK previously contacted Jermaine Jenas’ representatives for comment on Thursday afternoon, and did not receive a response at the time.
Jermaine officially retired from the world of professional football in 2016, following a knee injury that affected his ability to play the sport.
Following this, he made the move into football punditry, and joined the team at Match Of The Day, before becoming a permanent part of The One Show’s rotating group of presenters in 2020.
The Sun’s initial article pointed out that Jermaine had been absent from Match Of The Day when it returned for a new season over the weekend.