Anyone who's ever had a loved one go through addiction will know just how devastating it can be and how tough it is for those around them, as much as it is for the addict.
When you're younger you feel more invincible - that nothing is ever going to get you down or beat you. When you get a bit older, you realise the fragility of things, how easy it is to get caught out by things - and Ant did.
We treated it as another acting job. Some of these other bands had been put together, and it was their dream come true to be in a band, and that wasn't really the case for us. It was the next part of what we were doing.
We were lucky that when we were making the transition from children's to prime time a lot of other presenters our age shied away from that arena.
It's funny. I don't really think of us as TV presenters. I think of TV presenters as responsible people who show children what to do with empty fairy liquid bottles. Not a couple of blokes who don't mind telling kids to shut up.
I'm not sure how much Ant and I are insured against each other. I've heard it's a couple of million. However much it is, it would never be compensation for losing your best mate. I've never wanted to work alone since we started together. All the ideas we have are for the pair of us.
Saturday Night Takeaway' is the show we always wanted to make. It's a direct descendant of 'Game For A Laugh' and 'Noel's House Party' and 'Russ Abbot's Madhouse,' and they're all shows we grew up on as kids.
When we were first doing kids' shows with the BBC they asked us where we wanted to be in a few years' time and we said we want to be where Noel Edmonds is.
Ant and Dec seemed a natural name for us - it was just how people referred to us, cos we were always together. I've never resented the fact that his name comes first.
I think Ant and I were ambitious because of where we come from. Both of us are from working-class families on council estates in Newcastle.
I think obviously there is some kind of life form somewhere else. Whether it looks like the creature in 'Alien Autopsy,' I'm not sure.
We did a version of 'You Bet' called 'Wanna Bet' in the U.S. a couple of years ago. It was a good little show but the network put it on over the summer on Mondays so nobody watched it.
When we became TV presenters, I found a place for myself and Ant bought the house for sale two doors away.
We saw the band as an acting job - it was an extension of 'Byker Grove.' We were even still called PJ and Duncan.
When we met Susan Boyle she was a very unassuming lady. We didn't expect anything and we were probably a little dismissive of her.
We're incredibly lucky and I get to work with my best mate - I don't know why I'd ever want to stop doing that really.
I was a bit nervous before I got married and Ant said to me: 'Honestly, it just gets better.' It's amazing and the best thing I ever did.
We've talked about a sitcom and a comedy drama. It's getting the right project and working with the right people.
We got sacked for the first time when we were just 18 and you realise that this whole industry is transient and changeable.
Nobody ever sets out to make a flop, but it's going to happen. You have to pick yourself up, dust yourself down and say: 'Right, we go again.'
We always had one eye on doing Saturday night TV even when we were back doing mornings. That's where we wanted to go to get a bigger audience.
When we used to watch some BBC kids' shows it felt like some of the presenters were parental figures, we wanted to be their cheeky uncles really, their fun uncles, and speak to them on their level.
We want to bring the kids, the parents, the grandparents and grandkids together, we want them to have a shared viewing experience. We want the kids to talk about it in the playground, dad to talk about it down the pub, grandma to talk about it while she's out shopping.