Inside the life of wheelchair basketball legend Ade Adepitan including marriage with 17-year age gap

Ade Adepitan joins Mel Giedroyc, Rochelle Humes, Vernon Kay, Chris Ramsey and Lenny Rush for a fun evening to raise money for young people across the UK.

Children in Need is airing on BBC One tonight and there will be plenty of sketches and performances featuring well-known faces to help raise funds. One of the main hosts of the show will be Adedoyin Olayiwola, otherwise known as Ade Adepitan.

The 51-year-old presenter and wheelchair basketball player was born in Maryland, Nigeria, and he contracted polio as a child which caused damage to his legs, meaning he had to use a wheelchair. When he was three, he moved to the UK, growing up in East London.

As well as playing wheelchair basketball at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, he started appearing on TV in shows like Casualty and Desperados. During the 2000s he moved into presenting, mostly hosting sports shows.

In August 2018, he married singer Linda Harrison, who performs as Elle Exxe, at St Paul's Cathedral. Ade previously opened up about their 17-year age gap, as she was 19 when they first met.

Speaking to The Times he said: "I first met Linda at the National TV Awards at the O2. I spotted her in the corner of the room — she had this amazing smile and a beautiful aura, so I made a beeline.

"I tried to make her laugh, but I wasn’t sure if she was interested in me or not. We kept in touch and a month later met up for dinner in Guildford, where she was at college."

He was 45 minutes late, but luckily she waited for him and he was taken aback at how "cute and cool" she was.

Joking about her appetite he said: "Flippin’ heck! She smashed through all the food. Boom! Bang! We went for a drink and when we left the bar, we spotted a hill, so she sat on my lap and held onto me as we rolled down it.

"My heart was fluttering. We kissed on our second date, but we didn’t get serious until after nine months. It was nothing to do with age — she was 19, I was 36 — as we knew we liked each other.

"But she was under huge pressure studying for a degree in music and didn’t want a serious relationship."

Ade admitted he got a little tired of waiting around at one stage and told her it may be best to call the relationship off.

However, in doing so, it made Linda realise how much she wanted it.

The pair have a son, who was born in January 2021 and Ade shared the happy news on X, formerly Twitter.

He wrote: "I'm still buzzing!! Because at 6:36am this morning I became a father for the first time.

"So much respect for my wife @ElleExxe she absolutely smashed it, and now we have a beautiful baby boy! ❤️ #newborn!"

Children in Need airs on BBC One on Friday at 7pm