TELLY hunk Steve Jones makes his big prime time comeback today on This Morning – but he won’t be wooing the ladies like in his Noughties heyday.
That’s because the former Lothario, who seduced A-listers including Pamela Anderson, Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry, is a changed man.
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Steve Jones makes his big TV comeback interviewing on the This Morning sofaCredit: Channel 4
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Steve interviewed Pamela Anderson on T4 in 2004Credit: Channel 4
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Steve is now happily married to US writer Phylicia JacksonCredit: steveashtonjones/instagram
Execs reckon Steve, 46 — now happily married to US writer Phylicia Jackson — is the perfect host to help the troubled ITV daytime show move into a new chapter following the Phillip Schofield scandal.
And showbiz pals including Miquita Oliver, 39, have hailed him “an excellent choice” as he’s prepared to join reg- ular presenter Josie Gibson on the telly sofa.
Steve’s road back into the spotlight has been a long one.
His career really took off on Channel 4 teen show T4 in 2003, where his good looks and cheeky charm saw female guests fall under his spell and made him one of the hottest male pin-ups of the era.
Aussie pop star Kylie Minogue, 55, was even rumoured to have turned down an interview with him to avoid temptation, with then co-host Miquita confirming the sheer sight of Steve made women “get all silly”.
So how did the former model, from Tylorstown, in the Valleys, become Wales’s biggest womaniser since Tom Jones?
It all started with Baywatch babe Pammie, 56, who Steve inter- viewed on T4 in 2004.
She later admit- ted they enjoyed a couple of “trysts”, so was gutted to learn he was in a relationship with DJ Fearne Cotton, now 41, when she returned to the UK four years later.
On finding out, Pammie said: “Oh, Steve has a new girlfriend? S***. I had no idea. S***. I wouldn’t have come back to London if I had known that.
“He just texted me last night. He didn’t say anything. Oh s***.”
She added: “I still love Steve. He’s great. He’s the best.
“I love his accent. He should’ve warned me about his girlfriend though.”
Tomb Raider star Angelina, 48, was also fixated with Steve and asked for his number. He later described the megastar beauty as “actually pretty normal really. Likes a laugh”.
Angelina wasn’t alone in dialling Steve’s digits, as Bond Girl Halle, 57, also exchanged numbers with the heart-throb following her split from second husband Eric Benet.
And Steve was equally keen on her, making a 12,000-mile round trip from London to Los Angeles to have dinner with her in 2012.
He remained coy about the date, but did say: “I’m not saying much about it, a gentleman never tells.
“She’s going through a hard time and I don’t want to add to it. But she is a lovely lady.”
Three years before he met Halle, he enjoyed a whirlwind summer romance with another US actress, Hayden Panettiere, 33.
Steve also dated late Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding, and, in 2009, had a whirlwind summer romance with US actress Hayden Panettiere, 33.
He met the Heroes star over dinner at London’s Nobu Berkeley in Mayfair with a group of friends, including Sir Elton John’s husband David Furnish, 60.
They took a romantic trip together to the South of France, where they were snapped aboard a yacht during the Cannes Film Festival.
‘Ladies’ man’
But Hayden soon ended the relationship, admitting: “I’m single and mingling. Steve lives in London, the distance is a bit too much.
“Cannes was a great experience. I was on vacation and some friends were going so I decided to come along. It was fun.”
As well as Hollywood sirens, Steve has also enjoyed relationships with British stars including Denise Van Outen, 49, Emmerdale’s Amy Nuttall, 41, and The One Show host Alex Jones, 46.
Last month the latter was reunited with Steve on her BBC show as he plugged his new novel.
And she revealed she dumped the cad in 2002 because he told her then bosses at Channel 4 show Rise that she was too sick to interview Angelina Jolie — so he could nab the gig for himself.
Alex recalled: “I was staying in his flat at the time when I was working in London and he picked up the landline and said, ‘Al’s not here. She’s not feeling well, she’s had to go back to Cardiff’. I was in Topshop. So he did the interview.”
When quizzed about his ladies’ man tag last month, Steve told a podcast: “I did not grow up with too many women. I know men. I am one of them. But I am far more intrigued by the opposite sex.”
The hunk began his modelling career in Esquire magazine and entered the Big Breakfast’s Find Me A Weatherman contest in 2000.
Despite not winning, he caught the eye of telly execs.
And unlike some who would brush off his good looks, Steve readily admits he works at his image. He added: “I like to look good. I want to present the best me when I am in public.
“That is one of the good things about being on TV. You are always trying to look good and stay fit and look after the rest of it. If people want to say nice things about me, thank you very much.
“But I am not going to focus on it too much. I’m not going to be self involved. That is not good for you.”
Steve’s looks were part of the package that led to Simon Cowell cherry-picking him to host The X Factor in America in 2011.
The media mogul reckoned his popularity would help the show emulate the UK version’s success — but it proved a huge flop.
Steve was sacked after just one series and replaced by reality star Khloe Kardashian, 39, and Saved By The Bell’s Mario Lopez, 49.
Reflecting on his failure on the Stirring It Up podcast last month, Steve said he regrets signing up in the first place.
He explained: “It was pretty much career suicide at the time. Simon and The X Factor bunch were dangling the carrot of potentially doing American X Factor. And it kept going on and on and then it got pushed back and pushed back.
“I was in the running for it so I kept turning down multiple big, big gigs in the UK in order to keep in the running.
‘TV wasteland’
“I am not having a go at Simon. That is the business and the way it works. I landed that role, everybody wanted it and I got it.
“I thought it was the start of the big time and it wasn’t.”
He continued: “If ever the maxim, ‘Be careful what you wish for’ was spot on, it was that.
“I thought it was going to be great. It was great to be part of a big show, but when it suddenly dawned on me I thought, ‘I don’t know if I like being part of this’.
“Ironically, the decision was taken out of my hands and I was let go after series one as it was not the show everybody was hoping it was going to be. The show died a slow death after that.”
The one positive to come from the experience was meeting his future wife Phylicia, 38, in Los Angeles. The pair married in 2014 and Steve has even taken her surname as another huge sign of commitment.
He said: “I am technically Steve Jackson, as I took Phylicia’s name.
“I am so bored of being called Jones. Everyone in Wales is called Jones, so I had this amazing opportunity to become Jackson- Jones — to hyphenate that bit — and I went for it. I love it. It is awesome.”
After the X Factor debacle Steve was dumped into TV wasteland.By 2013 he’d returned to the UK in a bid to rebuild his career, but struggled to find work.
Then, in 2016, he was handed a role fronting Channel 4’s Formula 1 coverage.
And perhaps he could find a permanent home on ITV if viewers rate his This Morning summer stint.
Steve said: “TV, by its very nature, comes to an end, unless you are Ant and Dec.
“Success is being comfortable and continuing the life we want to live. That means continuous work.”
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Alex Jones revealed she dumped Steve in 2003Credit: Wales News Service
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Steve enjoyed a relationship with Fearne CottonCredit: BackGrid
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Steve also enjoyed a whirlwind summer romance with US actress Hayden PanettiereCredit: BackGrid
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Kylie Minogue was even rumoured to have turned down an interview with Steve to avoid temptationCredit: Getty
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The late Girls Aloud star Sarah HardingCredit: Alamy
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