THE Chase star Anne Hegerty dismissed talk of a love affair with The Beast — as she “does not do younger men”.
Viewers clocked “frosty knickers” checking out Mark Labbett, 55, in his trunks on the Road Trip spin-off show.
But Anne, 62, said the scene in Miami was deliberately edited.
Mark’s open marriage to his second cousin Katie, 28, collapsed last August when she chose to move on with an engineer.
But Anne — godmother to Mark’s four-year-old son — said: “Let’s not go there. I always say we’re not each other’s type and I don’t do younger men. I just looked over my shoulder at the sea and they cut in an image of Mark coming out.
“Mark was not actually doing that at that time. Editors are wicked. Producers just like to do that sort of thing.
“I laughed and then I rolled my eyes and thought, ‘For God sake, now everyone’s going to think I have a crush on Mark’.”
Anne also missed Shaun “The Dark Destroyer” Wallace’s prominent bulge.
She said of the trim 60-year-old: “I didn’t notice Shaun’s budgie smugglers.
“I suppose I’m just used to not looking at the boys. I wasn’t aware of it until everyone started pointing it out.”
Anne, whose autism means she has struggled to form romantic relationships, said finding love “doesn’t feel like something that’s necessary”.
She said of lockdown: “It was nice not having to see people and having an excuse not to go out. I just say, ‘So sorry I can’t. It’s all very unfortunate, we’re not able to’, and you don’t feel any guilt.”
But she admits the cast have all become unlikely sex symbols.
She added: “We probably are all somebody’s weird crush somewhere, I would expect. I suspect we all have big gay followings.”
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Anne looked miffed on the Road Trip after being thrashed by an 11-year-old Scrabble champ.
She said she likes kids but having any of her own was “not really an option”.
She added: “I used to mind that that didn’t seem to be going to happen but, to be perfectly honest, I do actually feel I’ve rather dodged a bullet.
“If there’s a kid in my house, I’ll make sure they don’t stick their fingers in the electric sockets or break anything. I prefer other people to have kids and lend me them and I can hand them back.”
- THE Chasers Road Trip: Trains, Brains and Automobiles airs Thursday at 9pm and is also available on ITV Hub.
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