In the debut episode of ITV's The Assembly, Danny Dyer opens up about the rollercoaster journey he and his wife Joanne Mas have navigated throughout their relationship. The ex-EastEnders icon features in the inaugural instalment of the fresh four-part series, set to hit screens on 27 April.
The Assembly throws a celebrity into the hot seat, facing an inquisitive panel of autistic, neurodivergent, and learning disabled individuals, where no subject is taboo. Danny faces probing questions about his union with his childhood love Joanne, to whom he tied the knot in 2016 and shares three offspring: Dani, Sunnie, and Arty. One panel member, Chardonnay, puts Danny on the spot, asking: "When Jo kicked you out, she emptied your shared bank account. Do you still have a shared bank account?"
Visibly taken aback, Danny quips: "I gave you a cuddle and thought, 'this is going to be a lovely question,' then you f***ing hit me with that."
Yet, he candidly responds, confessing there were times when his wife "deserved better".
"Yes, she did kick me out because I was a p**** and she deserved better. Sometimes I would go out and get off my head and take drugs, and I wouldn't come home for three days," Danny concedes.
He acknowledges his past troubles, saying: "I had issues, and I didn't want the party to end. She had every right to throw me out. She controls everything now."
Chardonnay brought up a tumultuous event from 2000 involving Joanne, who met Danny when they were mere teenagers at age 14. She drained their joint bank account and barred him from seeing their daughter Dani after accusations of infidelity surfaced.
Danny doesn't hold back on his rocky marriage during his appearance on The Assembly. He expressed just how open he felt during the interview, saying ahead of the series launch: "I feel like this was probably the most open and honest interview that I've ever given."
He added: "It was like three hours (of filming), so it took a while for everybody to trust me in the room, and I think they did. Again, it was very emotional and it was very refreshing, really, to be able to open up about my feelings in front of such a beautiful, intelligent, and honest group of people."
The Assembly will air on ITV1 and ITVX from Monday, 27 April
