Johnny Vegas

Though the two re-united twice in 2005, nothing could work out between them. They finally were legally divorced on March 11, 2008.

Three years later, he married columnist and Irish TV producer, Maia Dunphy in Seville.

Johnny Vegas was born as Michael Joseph Pennington to Laurence and Patricia Pennigton in Thatto Health, St Helens, Lancashire.

He was the youngest of the four children born to the couple. He had three siblings, two elder brothers Robert and Mark and an elder sister Catharine.

Raised as a Roman Catholic, he attained his formal education from West Park School, Alder Hey Road, St Helens. He then studied at St Joseph College, a boarding school seminary in Upholland. Though originally intended to train himself for priesthood, he returned after four terms being homesick.

He later on enrolled at the Middlesex University to study art and ceramics. After three years, he gained a third class degree in the same.

Completing his education, he tried to have a career in pottery but in vain. For survival, he took up various odd and menial jobs.

He started working in an Argos warehouse, selling boiler insurance and packing bottles of Jif in a factory. He then worked as a barman at the Brown Edge pub in Thatto Heath

Comedy occurred to him inadvertently. He made a debut as a contestant in the television show, Win, Lose or Draw in UK. It was during the show that he used the stage name, Johnny Vegas which has stayed on with him since then.

He made a brief appearance in Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Stand Us and BBC Three’s Almost Famous 2.

It was in the mid-nineties that he took up residence in London with the intention of becoming a stand-up comedian. There, he was trained and mentored by Malcolm Hardee, the godfather of comedy.

Not many people know that this portly figured husky voiced comedian of the television show, ‘Ideal’ fame had originally intended to take up priesthood.