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Antiques Roadshow star Michael Aspel has had an incredible career in British broadcasting for over 50 years, but his personal life could have cost him his career. The former Antiques Roadshow presenter had always wanted to be an actor but he got into news reading almost by accident.

The 93-year-old is known for his role as the host of the popular Antiques Roadshow from 2000 to 2008, as well as hosting Come Dancing, Crackerjack!, and This Is Your Life. Despite a thriving career, Michael walked out on three marriages and his first divorce almost impacted his career at the BBC.

Michael told The Independent: "Every time I go into Broadcasting House, I sort of crouch from the shadow of [the BBC's first director general] Lord Reith, because I came in at the end of that," he says. "The story is that an announcer was caught embracing a secretary, and Lord Reith said that he must go."

It's reported that members of the staff asked Lord Reith to reconsider and his decision was: "The man may be allowed to stay, but never again will he be allowed to read the epilogue."

He recalled: "When I got divorced, they said, that's the end of your career, old boy. I was lucky that I was on the cusp of the new era."

The broadcaster said he felt trapped and claustrophobic in his first two marriages; but his first wife, Dian, had a different opinion. She said: "He was a lovely man but a hopeless hubby. He always had a roving eye. He is driven by sex and ambition."

In 1962, he married television scriptwriter Ann Reed but that nuptials was short-lived and the couple divorced in 1967. His third marriage to soap actress Elizabeth Power ended in 1994 when the presenter began a relationship with production assistant Irene Clarke.

"It's a measure of failure," he said. "I can't shrug off divorce the way people seem to be able to these days. I'm surprised they don't now say, 'Will you be my first wife?', because it's kind of written into the constitution that it's not going to last. But I've always thought that marriage is an excellent thing, and I'm very disappointed in myself that it hasn't worked. I've always had a highly developed sense of guilt."