Declan Donnelly’s fear after becoming a dad for the second time at 46

Declan Donnelly had one fear about becoming a father for the second time in 2022. The presenter’s life changed at 42 when he had his first child, daughter Isla, with his wife Ali Astall. But on a recent podcast episode, Dec, who rarely talks about his children in public, revealed that ahead of welcoming his son Jack, he was “a bit worried” over one thing that was largely out of his control.

“When they first come along, you don’t realise how much they change your life, but for the better, the absolute better. And it’s almost like when they do come along, you’ve discovered the meaning of life,” he said on his podcast Hanging Out With Ant & Dec with his co-presenter Ant McPartlin.

But Dec admitted he was “a bit worried before Jack came along because I thought, ‘God, am I ever going to be able to love him as much as I love Isla?'”

“Do I have to half my love to both of them? Do they both get half of my love? Because she’s got it all at the moment,” he explained his fear. 

The star quickly realised he had no reason to be concerned after his son was born, coming to the conclusion that “you don’t half anything” as a parent to more than one child, rather “you get double the love”. 

“You reach another level within you that you just find more love for this other little thing,” he sweetly explained. 

Dec’s 2 rarely-seen kids

The Britain’s Got Talent presenter has kept his two kids out of the spotlight, so much so that he’s only shared publicly photos of his kids when they were born. Dec and his wife Ali, who he’s been married to since August 2015, welcomed their daughter Isla, seven, in September 2018, followed by their son Jack, three, in July 2022. 

“Becoming a dad has completely transformed me,” Dec wrote about his experience of fatherhood in his and Ant’s 2020 book, Once Upon A Tyne. 

© Ada Houghton, Getty

At first, like all expectant parents, I didn’t truly understand how much it was going to change me. I just thought it was another little person coming to live in the house. It opened up a whole other side to me, a side I didn’t know existed,” he added. 

“I felt a love that I didn’t realise it was possible to feel. Everything I do, every day, is for my daughter now.”

Inside his low-key family life

Dec and his family call West London’s quaint Chiswick home, joining a plethora of A-listers in the area, including Colin Firth and Kate Beckinsale. The presenter has lived in his £7 million family home for 20 years, with neighbours he once called “too posh”. 

“No, we don’t get mobbed in Chiswick. People are far too posh to let on that they know who we are,” he told The Sunday Times when asked if the family get bothered by people in the area who recognise him. 

“We are blessed to have some very nice friends, and we’re part of a gang, and they never treat us like, ‘Oooo, wow they’re famous’.”