Ashley Blake life story: Day Two - TV star's Rise and Fall
Sep 4 2009 by Maureen Messent
“And once I reported the near-miss of a couple of aircraft as a crash. I had to correct it.”
That BBC offer of a job with Midlands Today here in Birmingham came at a time when Ashley was desperate to return to his native city.
“Mum had been diagnosed with cancer,” he says. “She was just 57 and died quickly.
“I looked at her and thought: ‘You don’t bloody well deserve this’.
“Just as she had a little bit of money for herself, she became ill and was reduced to physically nothing.
“She was still working for the NHS as a caretaker when she became ill. She was an independent woman. I’d buy her presents and I took her to Jamaica. What would she say of my situation today? She’d say I didn’t deserve all my trouble and she’s still proud of me.”
Between Midlands Today appearances, Blake fronted programmes such as Watchdog, Inside Out, BBC Holiday and Restoration for BBC2.
He quickly became the golden boy who charmed viewers with his easy manner, and his mixed-race background probably helped him along the way with politically-correct BBC bosses.
Ashley’s rise didn’t preclude him from heartbreak.
His relationship with Sharon, with whom he’d fallen in love at the age of 15, fell apart. There was no bitterness between them. Ashley says he supported their son and is delighted that his only child, now 19, is living in Birmingham where he is training as a gymnast.
“We get on brilliantly,” he says. “We’re good mates. We talk as adults. Sharon, now married, lives in the East Midlands.”
Deep joy came his way in 2003 when Ashley – who says he’s had his share of women, but sticks with her when he’s sure he’s found the right one – met blonde Jessica Hayes, now 31, and at that time working in public relations.
He says: “A pub called Saints & Sinners on the Chester Road, Sutton Coldfield, had been my local for about ten years. The night I met Jess, she was in there with a group of girlfriends and I was with a group of blokes. We had mutual friends.
“We got chatting and I knew she was for me when she wouldn’t give me her phone number.
“She was hard work. I came out with 40 minutes of my best chat-up lines and she still wouldn’t give me her number.”
The romance flourished. They are still together, still rock solid, almost inseparable, Jess now working as a general manager for a chain of Italian restaurants.
They were jointly ambitious too. They looked at Saints & Sinners and reckoned that with Ashley’s experience of bar work added to Jess’s catering knowledge, they could give the old pub a new lease of life.
They bought the business and opened it as The Place 2 B (UK) Limited, then ran into trading difficulties. Like many, they were hit by the smoking ban and the first rumblings of the recession.
“All our money was in it and we took a hit,” says Ashley. “It wasn’t our fault.
“We liquidated the business at the advice of our accountant – but with hindsight, we should have walked away.
“This was a difficult decision. We had debts of about £89,000, made up of business rates and trade bills.
“I decided to pay off our small suppliers. The city council didn’t get it’s business rate money nor did the VAT man and one small supplier went unpaid. When we re-opened later as The Thai Place 2 B I was conscious of ill-feeling. It hurt. Because of my high profile, I was seen as not being ethical and moral in having unpaid debts. But I was responsible for 15 employees and their livelihoods.”
He and Jessica sold the business in February this year, just after the nightmare party and ensuing fight that led to his jail sentence.
Blake’s fall reverberated through the television news industry and the viewing millions in the Midland who literally looked on him as one of their family.
He says that Jess and his family have kept him sane since he was found guilty at trial.
“She must love me, I tell myself, to stick by me when I’ve no job, no money, and at this stage not much of a future.
“It’s corny but the only thing I’ve got left is love. I’ve got to look after Jess whatever happens. My sisters’ trust in me means a lot, too.
“And I’ve always maintained close links with Lozells – I still get my haircut at Jaz’s on Heathfield Road.
“I’ve spent the last few days trying to tie up the loose ends of my life in case the worst happens. I’m trying to reassure Jess, always my first concern, and get some sleep.
“The fags and some alcohol get me through. I’m gobsmacked at how I don’t need happy pills. I’ve been veering from optimism to deep despair. I tell myself it’s only a job I’ve lost but I can’t convince myself.
“I’m not a bad person. I was chosen to meet the Queen and Prince Philip, I’ve supported charities like the NSPCC Baby Careline and the MacMillan Trust.
“But I still feel that everything I have worked for has gone...”
