Touching

For Ant McPartlin, beloved dog Hurley was never just a pet.

The chocolate Labrador became his rock through addiction battles, rehab and a painfully public divorce.

Earlier this week, Ant and ex-wife Lisa Armstrong faced the heart-breaking decision to say goodbye.

After vets told them their 12-year-old dog was too poorly to recover, they made the agonising call to put him to sleep.

Ant, 50, and Strictly Come Dancing make-up boss Lisa, 49, were both able to see him beforehand, with the TV star staying by Hurley’s side in his final moments.

KING OF THEIR HEARTS

The couple adopted Hurley in 2013 after struggling to have children and had doted on him ever since.

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REST IN PEACE, PET

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When their marriage broke down in 2018, custody of the dog became one of the most emotional flash points of their split.

During their £30million break-up, Ant was said to have told Lisa she could take “anything but Hurley”.

At the time, the TV star said: “Hurley’s welfare comes first and we both love him very much. That’s the way it is really.”

They eventually agreed to share care of the pup, with Hurley dividing his time between their homes.

Hurley also enjoyed regular trips to the groomers and spent a holiday with Ant and his family last summer.

The Labrador even became a celebrity in his own right.

Speaking in 2019, Ant said: “I came out of a shop the other day and there was a woman on the floor cuddling Hurley.

“She said to me, ‘It’s the dog from the papers!’ Hurley’s a celebrity.”

Ant even named one of his companies Hurley Promotions Ltd – a nod to his ‘surrogate son’.

SUPPORT HOUND

Friends have long said Hurley was a lifeline during Ant’s darkest days of drink and drug addiction, visiting him in rehab and helping him rebuild routine once he returned home.

Speaking about their bond, Ant said: “There’s a loyalty and a love and a companionship with Hurley that you can’t describe. He never tells me off and is always pleased to see me.”

Even after finding happiness again with wife Anne-Marie Corbett, Hurley remained firmly part of the family.

In May 2024, when Ant and Anne-Marie welcomed their son Wilder, fans noticed his new “family tree” tattoo and questioned why Hurley wasn’t included.

Ant quickly reassured them on X, writing: “For all you dog lovers who asked why my beloved Hurley wasn’t on the family tree… he was!! He was just covered by our newborn.”

The photo had simply obscured Hurley’s name beneath the baby’s proof that the Labrador would always be family.

GAUNT and thin after a long cancer battle, the trademark smile still shone through.

Actor James Van Der Beek was supposed to be there as the cast of Dawson’s Creek reunited for the first time in 22 years.

But his illness meant he could only appear in a short video for the assembled fans.

Yet for those there, and around the world, it meant everything.

The 48-year-old actor, who died yesterday after being diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer in 2023, said the emotional reunion, which his wife Kimberly and their six children attended in his place, had been something he had been looking forward to during his gruelling treatment.

He told the audience at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York: “I have been looking forward to this night for months and months ever since my angel Michelle Williams said she was putting it together.

LAST WORDS

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‘COURAGE AND GRACE’

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“I can’t believe I’m not there. I can’t believe I don’t get to see my cast mates, my beautiful cast in person.

“I wanted to stand on that stage and thank every single person in the theatre for being here tonight.

“From the cast to the crew to everybody who’s doing anything and has been so generous, and especially every single last one of you – you are the best fans in the world.”

Van Der Beek was the all American teenager long before he became the object of teenage desire in adolescent drama Dawson’s Creek.

The son of mobile phone executive James Van Der Beek and former dancer Melinda, he was a promising American footballer in Cheshire, Connecticut.

But a concussion at the age of 13 kept him off the playing field so he took up acting.

He landed the lead role in his school’s production of Grease playing Danny Zuko.

He never looked back.

By the time he was 15 he was begging his mother to get him an agent and they travelled to New York to secure a deal.

While studying at private boarding school The Cheshire Academy he started appearing in Broadway productions.

A brief stint at university in New Jersey quickly fell by the wayside as he started landing major roles and then, at the age of 20, the lead in the teen drama.

As Dawson Leery, a budding filmmaker with an on-off relationship with Joey played by Katie Holmes, he became a teen heart-throb and the spawn of countless memes.

In 122 episodes of the show he grew from a confused 15-year-old to a confused adult.

The show’s theme tune I Don’t Want To Wait followed him throughout his life and triggered memories of the teen frenzy that surrounded him.

He said: “If I was at karaoke and it started playing there’s a part of me – and I’m a f*****g grown-ass man with four kids – that still wants to go hide under the table.

“I was at a pharmacy in Philadelphia and it came on and I immediately went into a weird panic.

“I think it’s tied to the pandemonium that accompanied that, for which there was no off button.

“Walking around at that time was very tricky because one autograph could turn into a mob scene. So I walked around in fear of teenage girls.

“When I was first very famous and people were passing out and all that, I remember watching a Beatles documentary and George saying how people were looking for any excuse to go mad.”

Dawson, like James, grew up on the show and when it came to an end he struggled to find work.

His big TV comeback show, NBC medical drama Mercy, was cancelled.

Sitcom Friends With Better Lives, made by the people behind Friends and Frazier, was pulled off air after eight episodes.

“I was 33, I had my first kid, and I thought: OK, what doors are open right now?” he said. “And I was thinking, I’m having more fun doing comedy than I would crying every day!

“I look back and I’m grateful. But it was an exhausting six-year marathon.

“I was shooting movies or doing photo shoots when the show was on hiatus.

“I felt burnt out when it ended. I needed time to duck away and disappear, figure things out and grow up a bit.

“When I was 24 the character I played on TV was a teenager losing his virginity.”

James met the love of his life Kimberly in 2009 and married the following year.

Together they had six children: Olivia, 15, Joshua, 13, Annabel Leah, 11, Emilia, nine, Gwendolyn, seven, and four-year-old Jeremiah, known as Remi.

He said: “When I was younger, I used to define myself as an actor, which was never all that fulfilling, and then I became a husband… it was much better and then I became a father… that was the ultimate.

“It just happened. We had one planned child – one out of six.

“One was 100% on purpose. The one thing we really sucked at was not getting pregnant. But thank God, honestly, because it’s such a struggle for people, and we really don’t take it for granted.

“I joke, and I laugh, but like, yeah, we really just kind of got lucky that way.”

He was always devoted to the show that made him a poster boy to girls around the world.

But, closer to home, he was reluctant at showing it to his own children for one very good reason.

He said: “It’s a great show, I love the show, I think other kids can watch it.

“I don’t think my kids need to watch their dad pretend to go through puberty. That’s my stance on it.

“It was a very well-intentioned show, people really trying to do the right thing and speaking incredibly eloquently about how they were trying to do the right thing.

“I think that seed of good intentions comes through.”

In November 2024, he revealed he had been diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer.

Last March he spoke about his fight with the disease on his 48th birthday, saying it had been the hardest year of his life.

He said: “I had to come nose to nose with death and all those definitions that I cared so deeply about were stripped from me.

“I was away for treatment, so I could no longer be a husband who was helpful to my wife. I could no longer be a father who could pick up his kids and put them to bed and be there for them.

“I could not be a provider because I wasn’t working.”

The reunion with his fellow cast members, in a charity gig for cancer research, was a beacon of hope in his darkest days.

Illness forced him to stay home but his message to fans was clear.

He said: “Everyone please enjoy all the love in that room. Shine some on my family.

“I will be beaming and receiving from afar in a bed in Austin.”