Tony Blackburn has confessed he cheated on his first wife – and that the betrayal unfolded in a bizarre “love square” with their next-door neighbours.

The veteran BBC DJ, now 82, looked back on his younger years as he opened up about his infidelity towards actress Tessa Wyatt, whom he married at 29.

Speaking on the Rosebud podcast with Gyles Brandreth, when he was asked if he had stopped “playing the field” once he tied the knot, Tony admitted that he hadn’t been faithful. He said that although he did settle down in some ways, “we both had affairs”.

What neither of them realised at the time was that they were each being unfaithful with the couple who lived next door – people they also counted as close friends. Tony was secretly involved with neighbour Margo Webb, while Margo’s husband Roger was having an affair with Tessa.

Tony explained that his wife had no idea he was involved with the woman next door, and he also didn’t know that Tessa had grown close to Margo’s husband. He recalled: she didn’t know he was having an affair with the neighbour, and then it turned out she herself was having an affair with the neighbour’s husband.

The radio star admitted that Tessa only learned the full extent of what went on when she later read his autobiography, something he now describes as “awful”.

Tony and Tessa married in 1972 and welcomed a son, Simon, the following year, but their relationship could not survive. The marriage ended in 1977, and Tony says Tessa eventually left him for actor Richard O’Sullivan. Looking back, he reflected that they had rushed into marriage, saying they were simply too young and admitting he could never quite understand why such a “very beautiful” woman had chosen him.

The DJ is also deeply uncomfortable about the way his first autobiography exposed his past. Ghostwritten by Cheryl Garnsey, the book revealed he had slept with around 250 women. Tony now feels it was “too honest” and admits his parents hated it.

He recalled how the ghostwriter pushed him for more drama, telling him the manuscript needed “a bit more sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll”. Tony replied that he had certainly done the rock ’n’ roll but not the drugs. When she then asked how many people he had slept with, he casually gave her an honest figure – and that exact number ended up in print. He says he never even read the autobiography before it was published.

Despite the painful end to his first marriage, Tony did eventually find lasting love. He later married Debbie Thomson in 1992, and the couple welcomed their daughter Victoria in 1997.

In recent years, the broadcaster has faced serious health battles. In August 2023 he revealed he had developed pneumonia and blood poisoning, which left him in hospital for two months.

Tony explained that his blood became infected and the infection reached his heart, and he now considers himself “quite lucky” to still be alive. He remembers being rushed to A&E with tubes up his nose and being warned by a medic that he would “be here for a while”, after he initially protested that he needed to be out in time for a show two days later. The doctor did not believe he would make those shows.

He believes the sepsis started after a tooth extraction and is now keen to warn others to take even seemingly minor procedures seriously. As he put it, he got sepsis from having a tooth taken out – and you really do have to be careful.