The National Television Awards’ Best Presenter winners Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are suffering flu-like symptoms and are “bed-bound” with Covid.

The National Television Awards’ Best Presenter winners Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are suffering flu-like symptoms and are ‘bed-bound’ with Covid

The National Television Awards’ Best Presenter winners Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are suffering flu-like symptoms and are ‘bed-bound’ with Covid

They missed picking up their award for the 21st consecutive year due to being stricken with the illness.

A source told MailOnline on Thursday (13.10.22) about their condition: “Ant and Dec are gutted. They love the NTAs, it’s the best night in TV, and for them it’s an event they always look forward to.

“They’re both feeling really poorly but will be watching the show from bed and hope to be well and working again soon.”

A spokesperson for the pair added to the outlet: “After both feeling unwell Ant and Dec have tested for Covid and unfortunately have both tested positive. The duo will be postponing work commitments whilst they recover.”

The pair confirmed news they were ill on their Instagram account, sharing a picture of their positive tests and joking: “We even get ill together!”

Alison Hammond had been tipped by show host Joel Dommett to end their winning streak as she was also nominated for Best Presenter.

Joel had hailed her the ‘This Morning’ host a “force of nature”, adding to MailOnline before the ceremony on Thursday: “Alison is very popular... it could be the year for Alison to break Ant and Dec’s streak.

“For me it’s a win-win situation and I’m sure it is for them as well.

“Ant and Dec are still so good. If everyone was just voting for them because they’ve won it for 20 years they may as well just win another I would understand, but people don’t vote for them for that. Viewers vote for them because they're so good still.

“But if it was to go to anyone else then I would be happy for it to go to Alison – she’s a wonderful force of nature, very infectious, and she’s always been that way. Since I met her 10 years ago, she’s always been like that.

“She has been on TV for so long and has become this main presenter the last couple of years, but she was on ‘Big Brother’, ‘I’m A Celeb...’ – she’s had a hell of a career.”

Ant and Dec also won the Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award at the ceremony in London’s Wembley Arena, with the gong going to ‘I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!’.

‘Emmerdale’ actor Danny Miller, 31, who won last year’s series of the ITV show, accepted the trophy along with several other competitors from the 21st season.

He said: “On behalf of Ant and Dec who have Covid so they can’t be here tonight, Stephen Mulhern is in the crowd so I’m not sure why he’s not accepting for them.

“I’d like to say on behalf of the crew and castmates, although we had to have an evacuation, they managed to get us back on and we all got paid.

“A massive thank you to everyone who voted and everyone who made the show what it is. A massive thanks to the cast and crew and best of luck back in Australia.”

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