Clark writes about all this with that classic Rylan mix of sincerity and wit. At one point, he writes that he needed to go away to hospital because his mum, who’d been taking care of him, had her own life to live – “admittedly mainly spent down at Lakeside in the M&S cafe”. Later, he pauses to insist: “This is not meant to be a WOE IS ME, POOR RYLAN! BOO HOO HOO story btw” (it’s a very colloquial kind of book). It seems, I say, like he’s wary of being seen as a victim. “It’s not woe is me,” he insists. “It’s not woe is me in the slightest. It’s what happened.” He then sought help and spent time in a mental health hospital. Speaking at an event in London on Wednesday night, Rylan reflected on that time and the Mirror reports him saying: "It is no secret that my marriage broke down last year. And I disappeared for five or six months and people knew when I didn't turn up for work that something was wrong because I am always on f****g telly, you know what I mean? He also regularly appears on Celebrity Gogglebox with his mother, Linda, and hosts his own Saturday radio show on BBC Radio 2.

Anyway. He didn’t win The X Factor, but it got him onto Celebrity Big Brother, a show he had adored growing up. He walked out the winner, and was asked to host Big Brother’s Bit on the Side. It turned out that innate charm doesn’t teach you how to read an autocue. Rylan Clark has opened up about the reasons for his marriage split for the first time. The BBC Radio 2 host split from husband Dan Neal last year after six years in 2021, with the news coming out amid a four-month break from the spotlight.

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As his marriage came to an abrupt end, Rylan pulled out of work events. He said: "Two days before I was due to do Eurovision, everyone knew when I wasn't at Eurovision something was wrong."

It would be overly simplistic, but not altogether inaccurate, to say that little Ross Clark found comfort in the dream of becoming a star. In an era where reality TV made people bona fide A-listers, it didn’t seem that out of reach. Especially if he wasn’t fussy about how he got there. “I didn’t care what the job was,” he says. “I just wanted the fame.” He then added: "The book opens with a disclaimer put it that way. That is how bad it got." Last week, Rylan hared how his mum Linda, who is a hit among his fans having appeared alongside him on Celebrity Gogglebox and his BBC Radio 2 show, was concerned. In January, The Mirror published a video of him on a night out, in which he giggles the words, “Gimme the gear.” It was, he writes in his book, “in the middle of the street, in public, and clearly I was making a joke”. But he doesn’t care about that now. It doesn't discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society - from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers. Slowly, the public’s perception of him started to change. People started taking him seriously. “The council estate boy is always going to be there,” he says. “I’ve not changed. My world changed. My teeth changed, my voice changed, but I never changed. Now people are just realising, ‘He is quite switched on! He does know what he’s doing!’ I knew it years ago, but it was hidden with long blonde extensions and a feather boa.”

Come back when you're older

The couple went their separate ways after six years of marriage, and Rylan has been candid about the struggles he’s faced since then. But now if there’s something I really don’t want to do, I’m going to say no. I’ve learned to be more in control. I’ve not had control for so long, I feel like Britney!’ By the time he started presenting This Morning, he was a consummate professional. Well, the Rylan Clark version of a consummate professional, which means telling presidential candidate Hillary Clinton not to change her grandchildren’s nappies, “or it’s gonna become your responsibility Hill, and you don’t need it, babe”. “She offered me a job, she loved me that much,” says Clark when I mention that interaction. Maybe if he’d taken it, she’d have won. With unforgettable stories about his rise to fame, his biggest regrets and his special bond with his beloved mum, TEN: The decade that changed my future is as warm and honest, enormously entertaining and full of surprises as its brilliant Sunday Times bestselling author.