“Two sides to every story” – Jermaine Jenas speaks out after allegations of inappropriate behaviour

The past couple of days have seen shock allegations made against the BBC’s Jermaine Jenas, co-host of The One Show and a regular on Match of the Day.

It’s understood that the former Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle midfielder has been accused of sending inappropriate texts, and with the news still slowly filtering out into the public domain, Jenas himself attempted to have his say.

He was put on the spot by Hugh Woozencroft in a live interview on talkSPORT, but far from being able to fight his corner, he didn’t really say much at all.

Extraordinary interview with Jermaine Jenas on Talksport just now after his BBC sacking. pic.twitter.com/SQWDiTIrPK

— Chris (@chrisdotlatchem) August 22, 2024

“There’s two sides to every story,” was as much as the 41-year-old was going to listeners, but that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if lawyers are already involved.

Clearly, after scandals that have rocked the BBC of late (Huw Edwards, Strictly Come Dancing), the corporation didn’t want their name being dragged through the mud again, so acted decisively.

Difficult for Jermaine Jenas to return to the public eye

It would arguably have come as a big shock to Jenas himself and to his colleagues more widely, and during the interview one could hear the angry intonation in his voice.

Disproving the allegations will almost certainly be the ultimate aim from Jenas’ point of view, given that if the story does have legs and the finger continues to point at him, his career in the media is likely to be over.

It would be very difficult for him to come back into the public eye unless he is definitively cleared of the allegations – in which case the BBC would then have questions to answer in terms of why they acted so quickly.

For the time being, it’s a most unsavoury episode which is likely to dominate the headlines for a while yet.