Nick Knowles defends Gemma Oaten relationship: 'It was a turbulent, traumatic time in my life'

Nick Knowles has been forced to defend himself after Emmerdale star, Gemma Oaten, revealed that he had dumped her for his ex while they were laying in bed together.

The DIY SOS host has a two-year-old son, Eddie, with his wife, Jessica Moor, who he returned to after calling things off with Gemma, and now Nick has had his say on their short-lived romance.

After Gemma lashed out at him in a newspaper interview, Nick took to Twitter to set the record straight and insist that he was only with Gem for “less than a week”.

He wrote: “Life is not about what happens to you, it’s about how you deal with it. This year we faced a miscarriage, the break down of our marriage and cancer without being disrespectful about each other at any point.

"We are saddened for each other and for the sake of our young son that this is being played out so publicly.

"The story in today’s paper is something that happened (in the space of less than one week) during a turbulent, traumatic time and more to the point - whilst we were separated. It is unfortunate we are having to relive it purely so someone can financially gain from exploiting our private life.

"With everything that’s happened this year, even discussing this seems very trivial in comparison to what we have dealt with and are still dealing with. As always, our answer is united, as we are.

"We have enjoyed eight years as best friends and nothing will change that.”

Gemma immediately hit back, claiming that she was “forced” to go public with their romance, tweeting: “I was forced to speak out, didn’t want to, but I’m glad I’ve set the record straight. The small fee from today has been donated to charity.”

She also insisted that she was sick of being painted in a bad light, telling the paper: “One Sunday morning we were lying in bed and all these texts came through about us being photographed together.

"In an instant he completely changed. It was all about him and how it was going to affect his family. It was really cruel as he said it didn’t matter for me.”

Nick and Jessica split in January following four years of marriage but reconciled earlier this month after she found out that she has cervical cancer.