Ant Middleton is a former British soldier/ex-military special forces officer, who served in the British Army from 1998 to 2002 and in the marines from 2005 – 2012, however, he is best known for being a kick-ass tough chief instructor in the wildly successful Channel 7 reality show, SAS Australia.
While helping contestants complete the gruelling course is a passionate role for the ex-SAS officer, in 2013, Ant did a four-month stint in prison.
According to Reality Tit Bits, the 40-year-old was jailed for assaulting two police officers in Chelmsford, Essex after a brawl on a night out and was caught “fleeing” the scene in an “alcohol-fuelled” attack.
Ant’s mates then got into an altercation with other men before he tried to intervene. After police arrived, Ant tried to flee the scene, but was caught by police dogs.
“On the night it happened, I just had to escape, not run,” he told The Sun in 2016. “My survival skills were in overdrive and I needed to think, so I headed out to the river.”
In the same interview, he revealed that he had three jobs inside the prison including floor mopper, gym orderly, and English teacher for inmates who couldn’t read or write.
“It’s been a major turning point in my life. If I am surrounded by a negative situation, I find a way out,” he added.
“I’ll be the bigger man, but before I couldn’t do that. When you’re in prison, it’s negative. If you then put [a] negative on top of that, you’re only gonna go one way. So I flipped it and was like, ‘I’m not providing for my family, I’m not providing for my kids.
“I need to get back out, get straight back on my feet. I’m going to provide for them again and get to the top of whatever I do again.”
Astonishingly, Ant was sentenced to 14 months behind bars, but only served four, due to displaying “good behaviour”.
Father to five children,Oakley, Shyla, 13, Gabriel, 11, and Priseis, six, and Bligh, five Ant revealed that he has not hidden his former life from them.
“They know that I am a good man, that the situation was an alcohol fuelled mistake. I tell my children to be careful of the situations you put yourself in,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald,
Ant isn’t the only Middleton to have experienced being behind bars. His brother, Michael Middleton, 41, was caught carrying seven kilograms of cocaine off a rucksack by police in March 2020 and was sentenced to three years and five months in prison!
According to Mirror UK, when he climbed into the passenger seat of accomplice, 31-year-old Ervin Hoxha’s car, the Met Police and national crime agency (NCA) officers arrested the pair.
Considering these controversies, one cannot help but feel sympathy for the Middleton family, especially considering that their mother, Diana, died from cancer in early 2020. However, Ant isn’t letting his past hold him back. With his experience in prison and his military service, the father of five hopes to inspire and motivate contestants and others to be better.
He is the author of three successful books, First Man In, The Fear Bubble and Zero Negativity. His latest book, Mental Fitness, will be released at the end of 2021.
We guess Ant has turned over a new leaf? We love to see it!
Ant found fame in 2015 as an instructor on the original UK SAS: Who Dares Wins on Channel 4 in the UK, however, he was sacked in March 2021, after questionable tweets and posts surfaced about COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.
According to the Huffington Post, he tweeted against people protesting against racism at the BLM rallies. The since-deleted tweet read: “BLM and EDL are not welcome on our streets, absolute scum. What a great example you are to our future generation. Bravo.”
Channel 4 still axed the controversial star after he apologised because of his conduct and his non-alignment with the values of the network. Representatives released the following statement: “It has become clear that our views and values are not aligned and we will not be working with him again.”
Watch SAS Australia on Channel 7 and 7Play.
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