Ex-special forces hero reveals how he went from frontline to mopping prison floors after booze fuell
MILITARY veteran turned TV star Ant Middleton went from being a frontline special forces soldier to a prison floor-mopper after a moment of madness.
The war hero — now chief instructor on Channel 4 reality show SAS: Who Dares Wins — had a glittering forces career, serving in the Special Boat Service, the Royal Marines and 9 Parachute Squadron Royal.
But his reputation was left in tatters after he was jailed for 14 months for a violent assault on two police officers in 2013 in his home town of Chelmsford, Essex.
On the fateful night of his arrest, a row broke out between Ant’s friends and another group of men.
His military background led him to try to break up the dispute and he put his friends in a taxi, while trying to usher the other group to a safe distance away.
But when the police arrived and asked him to leave the scene, the father of five lashed out, assaulting two officers before making a run for it.
The incident still fills Ant with remorse.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, the 36-year-old said: “On the night it happened I just had to escape, not run.
“My survival skills were in overdrive and I needed time to think so I headed to the river.
“Eventually the police dogs were out in force and it was time to give myself up.
I’ve learned the harshest lesson
“It was alcohol-fuelled. Once I realised what I’d done, I thought, ‘Oh my God’.
“It really hit home.
“That night was a turning point in my life but did not ruin my life. It was a clash of authority. I just lost my temper.
"A little conflict happened which turned physical.“I’ve regretted it ever since. It’s one of the biggest regrets I’ve had in my life.”
He served just four months of his sentence after being released on good behaviour.
While inside, he worked three jobs — as a floor mopper, gym orderly and teaching English to those who couldn’t read or write.
It was a blot on the copybook of a man who had a glittering 15-year career in the military and Ant feels the experience has given him a positive outlook he can now pass on to the show’s hopeful recruits.
He said: “It was the harshest lesson — going from a tier one special forces operator to standing outside a prison door thinking, ‘How did I get here?’.
“I realised that prison was a place where you soon see who really loves you. I was no longer Ant from the SAS, I became just a number.
“It’s been a massive turning point in my life. If I’m in a negative situation now, then I walk away from it.
“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 negative on top of that, you’re only gonna go one way.
“So I flipped it and I 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’.”
Ant’s new role on SAS: Who Dares Wins is to assess the character, conduct and mental strength of 25 civilians.
The show puts them through a gruelling SAS selection test, in the Ecuadorian jungle, which in real life has a failure rate of 90 per cent.
But while Ant’s star is now on the rise, his former colleague Colin Maclachlan, who was dropped from the Channel 4 show after the first series, has found himself back in the limelight for the wrong reasons.
In a section of the book, SAS Who Dares Wins: Leadership Secrets From The Special Forces, the 42-year-old SAS veteran appears to claim that he was involved in the mercy killing of “two or three” mortally wounded soldiers in Iraq.
While some of Colin’s ex-colleagues claim he has exaggerated his past experience, Ant has defended his comrade’s alleged actions.
He said: “It goes down to the individual and the situation. I’ve never been in that situation.
“It’s one of those that you do what’s right for Queen and country. Until you’ve been put in the situation I don’t know how you can judge.
“I couldn’t possibly tell you whether someone who has been has done the right or wrong thing. I’ve not been in their shoes. How would I act? I couldn’t tell you.”
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After his time in the Ecuadorian jungle, Ant was straight on to another gruelling task all in the name of television — but this time on water instead of land.
He was recreating the infamous Mutiny on the Bounty voyage in 1789, which saw Captain William Bligh and his loyal crewmen cast adrift in the Pacific Ocean on an open launch and left for dead after an uprising on his ship.
In a remarkable act of seamanship Bligh led his 18-man crew to safety across 4,000 miles of ocean from Tonga to Timor.
That is the journey that has now been remade for a multi-million-pound Channel 4 show.
Ant takes the role of Bligh and captains a team of civilians on the programme, to be screened early next year.
When we met the adventurer he had been back in Britain for just two weeks since completing the show and the journey had taken its toll.
He said: “It was very emotional. It’s the biggest marine survival effort known to man. People said to me, ‘Are you mad?’.
“All in all, I lost 21kg. I put on 10kg before I went into the show as I knew I would lose weight — it wasn’t muscle, it was mostly Nando’s.”
The journey has now got a very special place in his heart, as just a day after returning, Emilie, his wife of 11 years, gave birth to their fourth child — Ant’s fifth in total.
He also has another son Gabriel and two girls Shyla and Priseïs, with Emilie, plus son Oakley from a previous relationship.
The name he has chosen for his new son was as a result of his seafaring telly experience.
Ant said: “He is called Bligh. It was such an emotional and powerful journey.
“It meant something to me and it’s a powerful name. It’s something my son can look back on. It’s a really meaningful name and he can look back on it with pride.”
He now hopes he can become a poster boy for the Army.
He said: “I’d like to think I’m the voice of the new generation.
“We’re combat-hardened. I’m from a generation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Our battleground was where we learned. It’s not like the old generation where they used to train and train and train and then suddenly an operation would come up and they’d go on it.
“When I passed selection, within two weeks I was kicking doors down in Afghanistan as point man.
“You were on operations every day there — you had to learn quick. You were thrown right in at the deep end.
“No trooper, no special forces operative wants to sit behind a desk. We joined up to kick some doors down. I was in action in a very privileged era.”
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