Ant Middleton let his son grab an electric fence 'to teach him a lesson'

TV presenter and adventurer Ant Middleton, 44, said he once let his 13-year-old son run towards an electric fence and grab it as he wanted to teach him a lesson

Ant Middleton has revealed he let his son grab an electric fence as he wanted to teach him a life lesson.

The 44-year-old presenter, who is known for his brutal training methods on SAS: Who Dares Wins, said he applies the same military mindset to the way he educates his children. He recalled an incident that happened once, when his son Gabriel was 13, and the family was visiting a National Park.

Ant said he could see an electric fence up front and his son was running ahead, jumping over fences, even though he had told not to. At some point, he came up to an electric fence and instead of stopping him, Ant decided to let his son choose whether to touch it or not.

The adventurer told The Sun: "I could see an electric fence up front. My son was running ahead and jumping over fences, even though I'd told him not to. He came up to what he thought was a wired fence. I could have said: 'Stop!' but I thought: 'Do you know what? I'm going to let him learn."

He added: "And he grabbed hold of this fence and got an almighty whack from it." Ant said his son was "extremely upset" after the incident, but he admitted he found the incident amusing, adding: "I think it was quite a powerful one to be fair."

Ant, who shares four children with his wife Emilie - 17-year-old Shyla, 15-year-old Gabriel, nine-year-old Priseis and eight-year-old Bligh - continued: "But trust me, he didn't do it again. You've got to let children figure things out for themselves and I thought I'd let him learn the hard way."

The dad, who also has son Oakley, 22, from a previous relationship, previously admitted he plunged his daughter Priseis into a freezing pool to toughen her up and improve her "mental resilience" when she was just three. The TV hard man said other parents were horrified by his character-building technique - but he had no regrets.

In 2020, he told the Rachel Botsman's Trust Issues podcast: "I was on holiday and the swimming pool was absolutely freezing. My 10-year-old son and three-year-old daughter ran past and I grabbed hold of their legs. They knew the pool was really, really cold and my three-year-old daughter started crying.

"She didn't want to go in. So I grabbed her, put her in the water and held her there. You should have seen some of the parents' faces. She kicks off and goes mad and then all of a sudden she calms down and jumps on her brother's back. I then slipped off out the pool and they were playing in there for hours."

Revealing more details on the incident, he now told The Sun: "I believe we're becoming a nation of lazy parents. It's hard to grab hold of your child, knowing that they're not going to enjoy the initial process of realising that life can be uncomfortable. But once you get through that, it's fine.

"It was like that with my daughter. I was there and everything was safe, but there's no growth in comfort. After coming through that you realise what you're capable of. Now my daughter is a water baby - she loves it."

Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.