Top News

Chris Hughes has hit back at claims he was cut from ITV because he asked for more money to present the Cheltenham Festival. In April 2025, it was widely claimed he had left the broadcaster over a dispute over pay.

He stopped working for ITV Racing soon after his stint on Celebrity Big Brother, which saw him finish in sixth place. While it's been over a year since he stopped working for the company, horse racing voice Neil Watson hit out at ITV for parting with Hughes and mentioned the alleged pay dispute. The racing voice admitted he was not too enamoured with GK Barry and Calfreezy - whose real name is Callum Airey - taking on presenting duties at Cheltenham alongside Oli Bell. After Watson issued the alleged pay dispute, Hughest took to social media and hit back at the claim.

EXPRESS SPORT ON FB!Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page

Watson tweeted: "Never heard of Goalkeeper Barry or Carl Freezer but this shows ITV made a real horlicks by getting rid of Chris Hughes, because he quite rightly wanted a bit more in wages, because he was actually very good at what he did and he knew his racing too!"

After coming across this tweet, Hughes said: "Just FYI, press reports were not true around this. I never once asked for more money.

"I was simply told they were cost cutting across sport, euros were coming up etc, and I was one of them that was removed to cost cut. I even offered to work for free at one of the festivals."

Watson then quickly apologised to Hughes in another tweet, writing: "My apologies for saying anything which wasn't true about that Chris. Hope nothing I said caused offence or embarrassment.

"You're a decent guy who loves his racing and I'm sorry if I got the story concerning your ITV departure wrong."

Hughes felt no venom towards Watson's comments, saying: "No course not mate, it was in the press so you're entitled to believe what you want, I've just never spoken about it before as I don't react to things they write. Fish and chip paper days later! But was nothing to do with asking for more, just told I'm part of the cost cut."

Express Sport have reached out to ITV for a comment. In August 2025, Hughes left his role at BBC Sport, after four years of being the face of their coverage of the Hundred cricket competition, with England cricketers Alex Hartley and Isa Guha being brought onto the presenting team instead.

Explaining the decision at the time, a source from the BBC told the Sun: "Chris has done a good job for four years, but we're going in a different direction. There will be more focus on the cricket this year, rather than promoting the Hundred as an entertainment show."