Anne Hegerty reveals truth behind Mark Labbett's Celebs Go Dating candle gaffe

The Chase's Anne Hegerty has spoken out about her co-star Mark Labbett taking on Celebs Go Dating - and his recent mishap with a candle. Mark, 60, is currently looking for love on the latest series of Celebs Go Dating.

Last week, the quiz whiz left viewers in stitches when he appeared to doze off during a date on the show. He then attempted to take a sip from a tealight holder.

Speaking about the blunder on Loose Women, Anne gave an explanation for why Mark may have drifted off during the date. "Mark works awfully hard," she said.

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"He gets tired - it's not that unreasonable that he might fall asleep occasionally, including in the middle of a date, and get a bit confused about whether he's drinking a candle. It's not unheard of."

She added: "I think he vaguely noticed, 'This seems quite hot.'" When host Christine Lampard noted that he might be "just nervous", Anne replied: "He could very well be."

The Chase's Mark split from TV presenter Haley Palmer just days before their one-year anniversary last May. Speaking about it, he said: "She's [Hayley's] a lovely lady and I was very lucky to date her for a year, and as I said...it's me, I got old."

He told the Sun: "There's been no one since Hayley, I'm not saying there won't be another one. But I'm certainly not looking."

Making his debut on Celebs Go Dating last week, Mark - who is known as The Beast on The Chase - told cameras that he had been single for just over a year but missed the companionship that came with a relationship.

When asked what he was missing in his previous relationships, Mark said: "Probably a degree of self confidence to basically say no. I tended to go along with the flow. I was a single man for pretty much 20 years, and that has good and bad bits.

"When you're up at 400 pounds, you don't do a lot of dating," the 60 year old continued.

"In the past I've been 29 stone or 400 pounds, and it does affect your dating life. Probably the main thing is that women don't notice you as a respective partner. I did give up a little bit," he said.

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