Ant McPartlin left bloodied during ITV Saturday Night Takeaway finale after joke goes wrong

During the show, the duo took part in their final Ant vs Dec, which was a penalty shoot out presided over by Stephen Mulhern.

Ant McPartlin has sustained a bloody injury live on air during the ITV Saturday Night Takeaway finale after a joke goes wrong. During the show, the duo took part in their final Ant vs Dec, which was a penalty shoot out presided over by Stephen Mulhern.

Heading outside, Ant and Dec had five shots each, and Dec won - so Ant decided to rugby tackle Stephen in retaliation but was left bleeding. Ant was dabbing at his face and Dec asked what had happened during the Saturday, April 13, episode.

Ant informed Dec: "I cut my face jumping on Stephen Mulhern! I've got a Stephen Mulhern related injury," before he joked: "Where there's a blame, there's a claim!" In February this year, just as the 20th season of Saturday Night Takeaway was beginning, Ant gave further insight into his and Dec’s reason for wanting to take a break from the show.

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He revealed they wanted to spend more time with their families, rather than taking out their weekends with a live prime time show. Opening up to Fault magazine, Ant said: "On a more personal level, part of the reason we're pausing Takeaway is we need a break ourselves, and we need to spend some time with our family…

"We've both got children that we need to spend time with for a little bit. We need time to think and, and time to step back and look at the bigger picture and just see where we are now." Ant said: "We started working together when we were 13, and we became friends very quickly.

"But, you know, we're both, were are both 49 this year. We're obviously not the same people that we were when we were 13. So throughout our career, you know, we've both changed. But being able to maintain that friendship doesn't come naturally. Sometimes you have to work with friendships, and sometimes you have to compromise and sometimes you have to give each other space and time and whatever."