Rev Richard Coles learning about spy brother through public inquiry into scandal-Asyia Iftikhar-Entertainment – Metro

I’m A Celebrity star Reverend Richard Coles has opened up about his ‘spy brother’ just days after an inquiry into his sexual history with a teenager.

The 62-year-old media personality, who has just returned from the Australian jungle where he landed third place, revealed the eyebrow-raising family link during his appearance on The Last Leg.

When host Adam Hills started questioning Richard and The One Show star about whether they had ever met any spies, fellow guest Alex Jones joked that ‘Richard could be one’.

‘Actually, my brother was a spy, he’s retired now,’ Richard replied, referring to his brother Andy Coles.

When probed further by a shocked Alex, 47, he said: ‘Well actually he was a spy cop in the 1980s [which is] subject to an inquiry at the moment.’

The admission was met with shocked laughter as he continued: ‘I’ll tell you how you know your brother’s a spy. He’d turn up for Christmas in the sort of appearance of his undercover role which was not a bowtie in the casinos of Europe.

Richard spoke about his brother on The Last Leg (Picture: The Last Leg)

Alex was shocked at the information (Picture: Channel 4)

‘He had like shaggy hair and piercings. So that was a surprise.’ Richard later joked that he thought Andy was having an ‘early midlife crisis.’

‘And who was he infiltrating then?’ Adam, 54, asked on the Channel 4 show, to which Richard replied: ‘I don’t think I’m quite at liberty to say.’

And when asked by Alex if he ‘had any gadgets like a watch that could kill’ Richard clarified that it wasn’t that sort of thing, before adding he was ‘put into various groups identified as potentially dangerous’.

Andy Coles is being questioned as part of the public inquiry(Picture: Police and crime commissioners)

‘He’s told me nothing about it. In fact, I’m learning about it from the public inquiry,’ he continued.

The public inquiry, which took place last week, was told that the undercover cop in his 30s formed a sexual relationship with a teenage activist without disclosing his identity, per The Guardian.

The activist, Jessica, described Andy, who later became a conservative councillor, as ‘disgusting and gross’ and a ‘creepy lech’.

Richard recently appeared on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! (Picture: James Gourley/ITV/Shutterstock)

She added that she was ‘young and naive at 19’ when she met the 31-year-old, who claimed to be 24.

Jessica, who was involved in animal rights groups, only uncovered Andy’s identity due to a reference to his career made in Richard’s 2014 autobiography, Fathomless Riches: How I Went From Pop to Pulpit.

The offending passage said his brother had infiltrated a ‘sinister organisation’. ‘He looked like he had just walked out of the woods, his hair long and shaggy, with a straggly beard, his ears rattling with piercings,’ it read.

Andy, who is due to be questioned, has denied the relationship happened although the Metropolitan Police have refuted his denial saying that it took place from 1992 to 1993. The Met have said Andy would have faced a disciplinary hearing on a charge for gross misconduct, if it wasn’t for him already leaving the police force in 2013.

Describing how the intimate relationship started she recounted that he ‘just lunged straight at me and kissed me’ while they were watching television together. She had felt ‘shock’ following the encounter.

‘It was the last thing I was expecting … I didn’t really know how to react. Nothing like this had happened to me before so I didn’t really know what to do. I think my overriding feeling was that … I wouldn’t want to hurt his feelings,’ she continued.

Andy is being investigated as part of an undercover policing inquiry. They are looking at 139 police officers who adopted fake identities for deployments that involved spying on political groups.

Catch up with The Last Leg on Channel 4.

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