It was the moment that Ant McPartlin and his ex wife Lisa Armstrong had dreaded for some years.
Being forced to stand together, face to face, eight years after their very public and acrimonious split would have been difficult enough. But last week, their coming together was in the most tragic circumstances imaginable - to put down their beloved chocolate Labrador Hurley.
The warring couple haven't seen one another in the flesh since around 2018 - and neither have they wanted to - but last Thursday afternoon, in a consulting room at a west London veterinary practice, they were forced to put their personal grievances aside, when they received the devastating news that Hurley was seriously ill and wouldn't recover.
Ant, 50, dashed from the press launch of Britain's Got Talent in London's Soho where he'd been appearing alongside Dec, Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden, to meet Lisa, 48.
Both were inconsolable as a 'mini-truce' took place, though one I'm assured won't last.
'There is too much hurt, too much has happened,' says a source familiar with the pair.
But for one day, they put their hatred on hold to grieve for Hurley who was adopted by the couple in 2013 while they struggled to conceive a child. They grew to love him so much that he became their surrogate baby.
And an increasingly common tale of our times, after their 13-year marriage collapsed in 2018, he became the subject of a bitter 'tug-of-love' custody battle.
The pair had initially agreed to share custody of Hurley, but such was the bitterness between them, it was left to Ant's TV sidekick Declan Donnelly to act as the go-between, ferrying him between his two homes.
During their divorce battle, Ant is said to have told lawyers: 'She can have anything she wants - except the dog.' And in an interview at the time he said: 'There's a loyalty and a love and a companionship with Hurley that you can't describe. We still share quite evenly. Hurley's welfare comes first and we both love him very much.'
Still, Lisa felt extremely hurt and aggrieved by the arrangement. Hurley had become the one constant in her life who would make her smile as she navigated the pain of her divorce from Ant.
Another devastating blow came when Ant moved on with their former PA, Anne-Marie Corbett, whom he married in 2021.
He stepped into a ready-made family, with two step-daughters, whom he adores, and went on to get two more dogs (a pair of maltipoos - Maltese and Cockapoo crosses - called Bumble and Milo) and then, most painfully of all for Lisa, welcomed a son of his own in May 2024.
Lisa, meanwhile was left distraught, as she faced life alone, almost in middle age.
Friends of the Strictly Come Dancing make up artist told me how much she wanted Hurley to herself some years ago - and had appealed to her ex-husband.
She thought it was 'an entirely reasonable ask' as he had left her, childless, in her early 40s to make a family of his own with someone else.
It would, observed associates of the couple, been tough for Lisa knowing that Anne-Marie would be caring for her 'baby' when he went for his stays at Ant's house.
One said: 'Lisa had to watch Ant move on with a woman Lisa regarded as her friend and that was devastating.
'But then he got two more dogs and at that point Lisa thought it would be fair to request Hurley live with her full time. Ant wouldn't allow it.
'She was both cross and very, very upset. It was cruel, plain cruel. After everything she did for him and him walking away, she just hoped he might do the decent thing but he didn't.
'There have been times since Lisa's split from Ant when she's felt like Hurley was all she had, while he strolled off into the sunset with another woman and set up home.
'But still, he refused, it was a big no no.'
Even when Ant became a dad 18 months ago when his son Wilder Patrick was born, he refused to let Hurley go.
'It's heartbreaking for her,' says a friend. 'She won't ever forgive Ant for not doing that for her.'
Ant and Lisa at the Bafta TV awards afterparty at the Natural History Museum in 2007
'I know how much Lisa despises Ant,' another friend adds. 'and now Hurley has gone she will almost certainly be even more furious at him for all of the time she missed out on with him while Ant was building a new relationship with Anne-Marie.'
'Lisa was so angry about it,' said the friend. 'she struggled to see why Ant couldn't sacrifice Hurley.'
'She knew how much Ant loved him,' of course,' but would it have really been a huge wrench given he had so much new in his life?'
Hurley - who was photographed over the years being walked by both Ant and Lisa - came to symbolise one of the saddest and most bitter celebrity break-ups in recent times.
They'd met back in 1994, when she was just 18 and he was 20, on the music scene.
At the time Lisa was in a band called Deuce, while Ant and co-presenter Declan Donnelly were carving out careers as a pop duo known as PJ and Duncan - their characters from the Byker Grove children's TV drama, in which they first appeared together.
Despite her impressive career as a make-up artist, Lisa was constantly at Ant’s side supporting him as he went on to become one half of the country’s best-loved entertainment acts, hosting Pop Idol in 2001, I’m a Celebrity in 2002 and Britain’s Got Talent in 2007.
The couple married in the summer of 2006 at Cliveden House, near Maidenhead, Berkshire, with Dec acting as best man.
At one point they had a house on the same road as Dec in Chiswick.
To the outside world, their lives appeared to be perfect. Lisa seemed to enjoy all of the perks being the partner of one half of Britain’s highest-paid television duo.
Yet behind closed doors, there was sadness, as they struggled to conceive - something Ant was always very open about.
He told once interviewer: ‘Lisa and I would love to have kids. We’re trying ... it’s tougher than you think.’
In 2013 they adopted an adorable, chocolate brown Labrador puppy and he took the place of a child in their lives, appearing regularly on Lisa’s Instagram page.
For Ant’s 40th birthday in 2015, Lisa posted a picture of Hurley in a birthday hat, with the caption: ‘Happy 40th birthday, Dadda.’
By the end of 2017, however, it was starting to become clear that Ant had other, very serious, problems of his own.
Both he and Lisa had always enjoyed boozy nights out together at their local pubs in Chiswick, west London, but Ant soon found himself struggling with his demons and became addicted to alcohol.
Lisa’s friends tell me she was selfless looking after Ant during this period. She confided to them that she spent ‘two years of hell’ fighting to keep her ex-husband on the rails as his drinking and an addiction to prescription drugs spiralled out of control.
In January 2018, Ant put out a solo statement announcing he was leaving Lisa.
While his alcoholism was at first kept from the public, in March 2018 Ant was arrested and charged with drink-driving after his Mini collided with two other cars in south-west London.
The presenter was pictured staggering out of the car after the collision, looking dishevelled. Two people, including a three-year-old child, received minor injuries in the accident.
When breathalysed, he was found to be at twice the drink driving alcohol limit and was handed a record-breaking fine of £86,000 at Wimbledon Magistrates Court.
Though he had previously sought help for the alcohol abuse, drug addiction and depression, it was the crash and the ensuing publicity that prompted him to go to rehab.
Later that summer, rumours started circulating that Ant was in a relationship with Anne-Marie Corbett, now 48, who had been employed by the married couple as their personal assistant.
They made their first public outing as a couple at Wimbledon the following year.
Obviously, Lisa took the news very hard. She'd considered her a friend and she'd always lavished her daughters, Poppy and Daisy, now teenagers, with birthday and Christmas gifts.
She hit out on Twitter (now X) accusing Anne-Marie of breaking the 'girl code'.
Three years after the divorce, Anne-Marie and Ant married in a star-studded ceremony in Heckfield, Hampshire on August 7, 2021. Dec was the best man (again) and Anne-Marie's daughters were bridesmaids. Guests included Phillip Schofield,Holly WilloughbyandEamonn Holmes.
In their acrimonious divorce, it was reported that Lisa was given millions although sources say that figure was 'much inflated'.
She did, however, keep the former marital home -and a 50/50 time share in Hurley.
Whatever she got of Ant's fortune, it could never compensate what she lost when her marriage ended. 'It felt like many of Lisa's best years were wasted, Ant took them and then threw them all back in her face,' said one pal.
Ant, on the other hand, appeared 'deliriously happy' with his new life. He'd often be pictured out walking with his new family - with Hurley trotting along by their side.
The news that Anne-Marie was expecting the couple's baby was another painful blow.
Lisa, who has turned down many lucrative offers to do 'tell all' interviews about her marriage to Ant, didn't move on so easily.
She dated, unsuccessfully, a few times since her divorce and recently split from her boyfriend, the actor Grant Kilburn, who is 15 years her junior.