I’m sad more than bitter says Duncan the Dragon

Scots business superstar Duncan Bannatyne talks candidly about divorce and his one big regret.

You could argue that Dragons’ Den star and business superstar Duncan Bannatyne is bit of a catch. The newly-divorced dad of six is not bad looking for 65, worth a few bob despite recent money worries and is clearly adored by his friends and kids. And he’s certainly never dull.

Duncan’s “back on the market” after second wife Joanne McCue started divorce proceedings. During our chat he’s funny, blunt and cheeky. And searingly honest. Sometimes the Dragon breathes fire. At others, he’s as soft as a pussycat.

He often wears his heart on his sleeve, does Duncan. He doesn’t have much of a filter. For instance, I start by asking him why he’s written his latest book.

“I needed the money after my latest divorce,” he says bluntly. “Imagine you own your companies, which you want to hand down to your children. And the judges suggest you sell them. And you don’t want to do that, you want to save them.

“You give every single penny to your partner your houses, everything because you want to save your companies. And if you can do that, great.

“That’s the position I’m in. I was determined I’d hang on to my companies. I still have some debts caused by my divorce but I’m quite confident I’ll get through them in the next year and be back in the black and doing well again.”

To his credit, he’s happy to talk about just about anything.

Ex-wife? Sure, what do you want to know?

Poverty-stricken childhood that he wanted to escape from? Absolutely no problem.

His relationship with DIY SOS’s Julia Kendell? Bring it on.

How’s Scotland’s independence debate is shaping up? Uh-oh.

“No comment,” he says. “I’m not getting into all that.”

It’s a strange thing for him to clam up over, because a quick look at his Twitter feed shows that he’s commented on it before, saying on September 6: “If Scotland becomes independent the only people who will lose are Scottish people living in Scotland.” Mind you, he got so much abuse on the social networking site for that comment that shortly afterwards he tweeted about the bad language, insults and threats he’d received. Not that abuse on Twitter has affected his enthusiasm for the social networking site. He puts much of his life “out there” through tweets.

Shortly after we spoke he tweeted: “Sometimes we realise we should be more grateful for what we have. Today is one of those days for me people. Peace and love. Peace and love.”

He also told a student who asked him to make an appearance at his university that he charges £25,000 an hour but he’d give him three hours for two plus 10% off so it would be “just” £45,000. He later deleted that tweet.

Back to our interview and he’s in full flow. I ask if he’s bitter at the way his divorce has turned out.

“Bitter? I’m sad more than bitter,” he says. “I think people who have children by a first or even a second partner and want to marry again should be warned of the consequences and the effects on the children if you don’t have a pre-nup.

“I think my children have been robbed. My older children (from his first marriage) are now not getting things they’re entitled to. We had a beautiful villa for 10 years and now we don’t have it any more. We used to have some great times there. All the memories are gone.

“We had a place in London it’s gone. So I think anyone who has children should be warned about what they’re doing when they get married to someone else.”

Thinking out loud, I say he must be saddened that things ended so acrimoniously.

“Of course that’s like saying do you wish the mugger hadn’t mugged you!” he barks.

He sounds pained. I try to lighten the mood by talking about his children, saying that surely it must comfort him that he has such a good relationship with his kids.

“Yeah, we do have a great relationship and it does give me comfort. In fact, on Tuesday night, I went round to my first wife Gail’s house we had a very amicable divorce and we’re still friends.

“Our daughter Holly was leaving to go travelling for a year on Wednesday morning, so we had food with my four oldest children and two grandkids. It was great, though I’ll miss Holly like mad.”

He’s a young-looking granddad. Have you had some cheeky Botox, or a sneaky face-lift, Duncan?

“No, I just go to the gym regularly and have spa treatments and facials,” says the owner of Bannaytne’s gym and spa chain. He can be as smooth as the skin on his unlined cheeks. Business is in his blood, but it wasn’t always that way. Growing up in Clydebank, the Bannatyne family was certainly far from comfortable.

“I was born in poverty. My mother and father never had a car, for instance, they never drove. I always wanted to be better, to be not poor. To be able to buy ice cream when the ice cream van came round. I started my own paper round so I could get myself a bike, because my parents couldn’t afford to give me one. I knocked on doors till I had 100 customers.”

He’s had a lot of life experience, so I ask what advice he’d give his younger self.

“I’m very happy with who I am,” he says. “Everything I’ve done has made me who I am. My only regret is marrying Joanne McCue.”

It’s a sad state of affairs for someone who has two children with this woman. I ask if he hopes they can get past the bitterness, become friends.

“The thing is, during the divorce I still loved her. People said why don’t you tell her but I could never, ever trust her.

“Once the trust was gone . . . she turned into a different person.”

Reports suggest he’s struck up a relationship with DIY SOS’s Julia Kendell. I ask if it’s true.

“Julia and I are friends. She doesn’t have a partner and she invited me to a charity do at St James’s Palace. Then there was a Lottery do and she came as my plus one. A reporter asked us what was going on and we said we’re just friends.

“The next day in the paper it said ‘Bannatyne finds love’. That’s why you can’t believe anything you read in the papers!”

He’s ranting, but he’s laughing too, as I retort that isn’t true of The Sunday Post. I ask if he’s regretted that his kids would have read some of the sadder things he’s said in interviews or on Twitter. For instance, he admitted that he felt suicidal during his divorce from Joanne.

“No,” he says, sounding baffled. You don’t have much of a filter, do you Duncan?

“No, I don’t!” he guffaws.

The Scottish accent remains as strong as ever, but he doesn’t have many ties left north of the border, admitting he never visits Scotland and has “moved on” from family fall-outs with his siblings. His fellow Dragon Deborah Meaden is appearing in Strictly Come Dancing. “I think she’s mad to do it,” he says. “She asked if she was stupid or brave. I said both!”

Our time’s coming to an end. Duncan ends optimistically. “I feel good about the future. It’s going to be a great year,” he says defiantly.

Riding the Storm My Journey to the Brink and Back, by Duncan Bannatyne, is published by Random House