Jermaine Jenas has reflected on the inappropriate texts that led to the breakdown of his marriage and the loss of his BBC career.

In August of last year, the retired footballer and TV presenter was suddenly let go from the BBC, after he admitted to exchanging sexual messages with two female colleagues.

Jermaine had become a staple at the broadcaster in previous years, as a lead presenter on The One Show and a regular pundit on Match of the Day. 

Then, in March of this year, Jermaine's wife, Ellie Penfold, confirmed that their 14-year marriage had come to an end, as a result of the texts.

Now, almost one year after the scandal first broke, Jermaine has shared a new insight into the matter.

Speaking to comedian Katherine Ryan on his and boxer Derek Chisora's podcast Let Me Tell You Something, the 42-year-old recalled the type of content that the texts contained.

“I broke a vow. I feel my level of punishment was up there. I had to take it and have some broad shoulders and handle it, and I feel like I did that,” he stated.

Jermaine went on to compare his messages to the lead character in the bestselling raunchy franchise, Fifty Shades of Grey. 

“It was Christian Grey in text messages, put it that way,” he admitted.

"It was sexting, as simple as that, but it was initiated to me and then I responded. It wasn’t just me going out of my way and it definitely 100% wasn’t, ‘If you do this, I will help you in your work’. There was no power element to it going on,” Jermaine insisted.

The father-of-four further confessed that the scandal happened during an already-fractured time in his marriage to Ellie.

"There’s a lot of stuff with me and Ellie where we weren’t in the best place ourselves, and things were just spiralling a little bit. In no way is that blame. I’m fully accepting responsibility,” he clarified.

"I dealt with it wrong and got heavily punished for it by losing pretty much everything that I had at that time,” Jermaine added.