Jermaine Jenas reveals desperate plea to wife Ellie Penfold before couple's divorce after sexting scandal as former Spurs star was ‘prepared to be unhappy for the rest of my life’

Jenas was axed from his job at the BBC and saw his marriage collapse due to a sexting scandal in 2024. The former midfielder lost his job after sending inappropriate messages to female colleagues and subsequently admitted he "had a problem." Jenas and Penfold then announced they were splitting after 16 years together in March. The couple share four children and Jenas has admitted he was desperate to stay with his wife so that he could keep their family together.

He told the Filthy Fellas podcast: "It was her decision and one that I had to accept. If it was up to me - and I think a lot of men are like this - I'd probably be prepared to be unhappy for the rest of my life if [it meant] I had my kids in it. If I have my kids, I'm quite happy to sacrifice. It's a man thing. Relationships are what they are - they have highs, they have lows and people cheat - some people do, some people don't, but you figure a lot of things out. The reality is we both were in a position where we were like 'are we really happy?' From her side of things, she'd ran the course more than probably me. But I was much more happy to go 'I'll be unhappy if I can stay in this house with you and these kids'. It wasn't to be for her, so we went our separate ways and that is that."

Jenas also spoke about why the couple eventually decided to part ways, adding: "The reality is, me and my wife haven't split up because I sent some text messages to some people at work. We had issues for a period of time, it all comes to a head and you eventually make a decision to say, as adults, we will be better parents for our children if we just remain friends and that's it."

Jenas has since returned to work with talkSPORT and insisted he was "coming back a better person" after taking time out to reflect on his actions.