Former presenter of The One Show and Match of the Day pundit said he has been able to find freedom since BBC sacked him in wake of a sexting scandal
Jermaine Jenas has claimed he felt a degree of relief after being sacked by the BBC for sending inappropriate messages to two female colleagues.
The former Spurs midfielder held prominent roles at the Beeb – presenting The One Show and appearing as a regular pundit on Match of the Day . But the Corporation decided to terminate his contract last year in the wake of the texting scandal. He was also taken off their air by TNT Sports and TalkSport.
Jenas has previously admitted responsibility for sending the messages and said he was “ashamed” by his behaviour despite doing “nothing illegal” with the exchanges between “consenting adults.”
Now, however, Jenas insists leaving the BBC has offered him a sense of freedom when it comes to opening up other media opportunities – which includes working with betting companies.
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“Having worked in the media for the last 10 years, and having been through what I’ve been through for the last year, (it’s) been a really difficult moment for myself and my family,” Jenas told the Reece Mennie podcast.
“With what happened, which I have always held up my hand and taken full responsibility for, that’s very important to do.
“You go through a lot of different emotions of anger and blame, but eventually you realise: ‘Take responsibility, Jermaine, and you’ll be able to move forward.’ It’s easy to blame everybody else.”
And from that Jenas said he could turn the negative of losing his job into the positive of creating new opportunities.
He added: “Because of their ability to take away my life, in terms of every deal I had, the jobs that I had at that particular time, I said that is never happening to me again, so I’ve recently set up my own production company.
“My agency that I had at the time weren’t that supportive of it. This is not their fault, but when you’re in this kind of media bubble where you work for the BBC, there are so many walls in terms of what they want you to do and what you’re not allowed to do.
“Betting companies want to work with me because I’m in football; BBC hate that because of the issues to do with gambling in general, so they block all of that.
“So there were a lot of blocks on one side and football was bringing me some stuff, but the reality is that it all got wiped out. It all got taken away.”
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