The Chase brainbox Mark Labbett has revealed he is currently single, after splitting from his wife and cousin two years ago.
Mark, 56, tied the knot with his second cousin, Katie, 29, in October 2014 before calling it quits on their romance during the pandemic.
The couple, who have one child together, attempted to open up their marriage before eventually splitting for good in 2020 - citing their 27-year age gap as one of the reasons.
The former maths teacher, who shares four-year-old Lawrence with his ex wife, left nurse Katie so she was free to move on with her boyfriend Scott, after their open marriage didn't work.
However, now two years on from their split, the ITV star confesses he is far "too busy" for a new relationship, writes the Mirror.
"I’m single now. We are separated but we get on really well, we co-parent," the quiz genius added when chatting with The Sun.
"I promised to look after her and I promised to look after my kid."
The former couple first met via Facebook in 2010 - with Katie claiming at the time she had no idea her future husband was a TV star.
"I had never heard of Mark, or watched The Chase, but my gran mentioned him so I was intrigued," the mum-of-one explained.
The pair hit it off in 2012, after Mark invited Katie to watch a celebrity Chase special being filmed and going out for drinks.
Mark and Katie’s dads are first cousins - making the former couple second cousins - but both have always maintained they had no idea they were related until after their fairytale castle wedding.
"It wasn't something we were aware of at the time - it was one of those things that happened," Mark has previously stated during a joint chat with the Loose Women ladies prior to their eventual split.
"I had been a single man for a long while so I was getting used to the idea of being on my own.
"Especially as a bachelor, we can get pretty selfish, you get used to doing what you want to do all of the time."
The star added: "As a couple of my friends pointed out the big challenge for me is learning to adapt with being with someone else."
Elsewhere in his latest interview, Mark went on to reveal how he attracts a lot of attention at public appearances - explaining how he has to tell "young ladies who are only 19 or 20" to leave him alone at student gigs.
The Beast has even had to hire a personal guard for public events, due to the fact fans will attempt to grope and sexually assault him.
He is paid large sums for appearances and said: “I’ve done a lot of gigs up and down the country, things like bingo hall and pub quizzes and it’s great fun but I can safely say on any given gig I get my arse felt about four times, it’s at every gig and that’s not just women.
“I’ve had women who have pulled my face on to kiss them, they sit down on my knees and I’ve had to throw them off. The worst one was I was wearing jeans and the woman grabbed my meat and two veg.
“I was trying to chat up another lady. If I’d done that to her I would be in the cells. I’ve got the female equivalent of those men that always paw women.”
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