HE’S the cheeky chappy who leaves viewers in tears with his moving makeovers for beleaguered families on DIY SOS, and boasts an army of female fans.
But off-screen, Nick Knowles has weathered a string of scandals and, this week, he found himself in hot water again after breaching BBC rules by filming a Shreddies ad.
Beeb bosses are upset that the 58-year-old star drew on his DIY SOS profile to play a builder in the cereal and he is said to be in “utter turmoil” over fears he faces the sack.
It’s not the first time Nick has painted himself into a corner.
Past controversies include an acrimonious divorce, accusations of “emotional cruelty” and claims he will only date women under 30.
As he fights to save his slot on the emotional primetime show, we look at the ups and downs of the TV handyman.
Tangled love life and bitter divorce
Nick, who grew up on a council estate in Southall, first wed in the 1990s and had two children with first wife Gillian — son Charlie, 27, and daughter Tuesday, 26.
The couple split when the children were toddlers and Nick went on to have another son Tyrian-J, 23, during a two-year romance with beauty therapist Paula Beckett-Vass.
He moved in with presenter Suzi Perry after meeting her on the set of City Hospital, splitting with her three years later, in 2003.
But it was his second marriage, to Jessica Moor, which caused the star the biggest headache.
The couple have a young son Eddie, now six, but when they split in 2016, after four years of marriage, she accused him of “emotional cruelty, abuse and eventually isolation.”
The row erupted on Twitter after Jessica claimed her ex had refused to pay Eddie’s school fees as the divorce talks turned ugly.
She tweeted: “After years of intimidation, emotional cruelty, abuse and eventually isolation (that I have kept silent about — of which I have diaries and images), this is the straw that broke the camel's back.”
Nick furiously denied the claims, insisting he was “extremely hurt” by the accusations and said he would continue to pay his son’s fees directly to the school.
'Cruel' dumping after public snap
But Jessica is not the only ex to slam the star’s behaviour.
Following the marriage split he dated Emmerdale actress Gemma Oaten but she says he instantly changed when their romance became public, after they were snapped at the TV Choice awards in September 2016.
“One Sunday morning we were lying in bed and all these texts came through about us being photographed together,” said Gemma.
“In an instant he completely changed. It was all about him and how it was going to affect his family. It was really cruel as he said it didn’t matter for me. I felt sick."
She added: “I said, ‘Do you want to throw away what we have? We have done nothing wrong’. But he just dropped me like a ton of bricks.
“I thought it was a real relationship and he wasn’t afraid to let others know.”
'Mid-life crisis'
More controversy followed when TOWIE star Pascal Craymer – 25 years his junior – revealed they were dating, saying: “He’s so lovely. We’re seeing how it goes. He gets portrayed badly but he’s a nice guy.”
But he embarrassed her by instantly denying their romance, and she responded by saying he was having a “mid-life crisis”.
Nick went on to date marketing executive Rebecca Kearns and PR executive Emily Hallinan – both 30 years his junior.
And reality star Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace called him out when she claimed he would only date women under 30.
“Nick was trying to kid himself he tried to chat me up that one time. That’s all I know!,” she told The Sun in 2018.
“And then he must have Googled me and found out my date of birth and realised I was far too old for him.”
She added: “He’s a delightful gentleman and I like a silver fox but I do feel like something happened when he realised I wasn’t under 30, and then I was dumped.”
Nick – who split with Emily in February – has previously confessed to commitment phobia.
“My relationships have pretty much followed a pattern,” he said in 2008.
"They last six months and start off with me explaining that I work a lot, so will have commitment issues.
“The women involved agree that that is fine, then after a month I get a phone call saying, ‘This isn’t on’. After three months we split up, then get back together. After five, there’s another tussle. At six it’s all off.”
On screen spats and ‘sexism’ row
Nick’s fiery temper has been known to get him into trouble in the past.
During the filming of the Big Build, in 2018, he upset interior designer Gabrielle Blackman by berating her on-screen for borrowing his workmen to make table tops.
After Nick told her she’d “dropped a clanger” on the job Gabrielle accused him of getting “very emotional” over the issue and insisted he was overreacting.
Nick’s stint on I’m a Celebrity also got him in hot water with viewers and producers alike.
He was accused of being sexist during a row over rice portions, when he suggested the female celebrities would be "a bit jumpier" because they were on their periods.
He told John Barrowman: "Remember the girls are going to be a bit jumpier because of what time of the month they told us it is. We’re going to have that for a couple of days with the girls. "
Anne Hegarty also revealed that Nick became the campmates’ champion, having “blazing rows” with producers in the Bush Telegraph.
"I don’t think (the viewers) have seen how protective Nick gets with the other campmates,” she said on her exit from the jungle. “And how he’ll have blazing rows in the Bush Telegraph if he thinks the rest of us are being put at risk in any way."
Campmate Malique Dwyer Thompson also revealed that Nick had “big disputes” with Noel Edmonds around the campfire that weren’t aired.
But Nick claimed producers were “absolutely furious” with him because he encouraged the campmates to stick together.
“They did anything to try and wind us up. And the more we stuck together the more it really got on their nerves,” he said. “They hated me by the end of it!"
Album flop and driving ban
Guitarist Nick has long harboured dreams of a musical career which came to an abrupt end in 2017 after his first album, Every Kind of People, flopped spectacularly.
The album of covers limped into the charts at no.92 and was slammed by Shane Ritchie, who mocked him as a “chippie who sings”, as well as beginning a war of words with Noel Gallagher.
“Noel Gallagher was promoting an album at the time and he said it sounded like I was having a stroke when I was singing,” Nick told the Sun.
“Noel’s about 55 now and he’s still trying to say things like a teenager.
“But trying to stay current by taking the p*ss out of somebody who does makeover programmes on TV — it’s a little less rock ’n’ roll, isn’t it?”
He also says the flop damaged his love of music.
“I didn’t pick up a guitar for about 18 months after the album came out,” he said.
“I took a bit of a kicking for it and I felt like the joy had been taken out of it for me. It took the love of it away.”
The presenter found himself on the wrong side of the law in 2019, when he was caught speeding and using a mobile phone near his Cotswolds home.
He admitted doing 85mph in a 70mph limit in his Range Rover and told the court he had a hands-free kit but was using his phone due to a “dodgy power lead”.
He was banned from driving for six months and fined nearly £1,500.
Whatever the outcome of this latest row, DIY king Nick is bound to rebuild his reputation and keep his solid fan base.
But his next big project could be building bridges with his BBC bosses.
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