Sacked BBC Radio 1 presenter Scott Mills previously admitted to pinning an ex-boyfriend to the wall by his throat after he found him in bed with his friend.
Mills, 53, was fired by the BBC on the weekend after 27 years with the company – reportedly over ‘serious sexual offences’ against a boy under the age of 16 between 1997 and 2000.
The Met Police confirmed they had questioned Mills over the allegations when they were reported to them in 2016, but the Crown Prosecution Service found there wasn’t enough evidence and closed the case in 2019.
However, the BBC is refusing to say why he was sacked other than that it was related to his ‘personal conduct’.
Since the news broke, the presenter’s past relationships have been under the microscope, including the death of his former partner Mitch who died of from an overdose in 2000.
In his autobiography released in 2012 titled ‘Bye, love you’, Mills admitted being violent towards a boyfriend he had just before he left Manchester to work for Heart 106.2 in London in 1995.
Mills wrote: ‘He was one of those guys who I knew was bad news but of course that was part of the attraction.
‘I really fancied him but at the same time, didn’t trust him. He was the kind of person I would never go for in a million years now.’
Radio 2 Breakfast Show host Scott Mills, pictured last January on his first Radio 2 breakfast show, was hauled off air last Tuesday and his contract has now been terminated over his ‘personal conduct’. Police have confirmed the complainant was under the age of 16
Scott Mills and his husband Sam Vaughan last April. They married in 2024 after appearing on BBC’s reality show Celebrity Race Across the World
He explained how Darren then ‘turned up’ in Manchester one day and ‘announced’ he was moving in with Mills.
The budding then 22-year-old radio star who had been working at local stations said he was ‘confused and didn’t know how to turn him away’, adding that he knew it wasn’t a good idea for them to live together.
He said Darren was ‘aggressive’ and made him feel ‘properly scared’ at times.
He continued: ‘Thankfully, Darren made our breakup quite easy.
‘Six months after he moved in, I went on holiday and, in another scene straight from a movie, I arrived back to find him in bed with my friend. Yes, that really can happen in real life.
‘I remember grabbing him and shouting at him. I even pinned him to the wall with my hand around his throat which was very out of character for me but I was so angry.
‘Then I threw him and all his stuff out of the flat. Even though I’d kind of always known he was dodgy, I was still really hurt by Darren’s betrayal.
‘I should never have got involved with him but it was one of those young things where I thought it would be ok and I could change him – that never works, I know that now.’
In recent years, Mills has found stability with husband Sam, whom he met in 2016.
The couple appeared together on, and won, BBC’s reality show Celebrity Race Across the World in 2024. They got married in Barcelona shortly after filming.
Mills joined BBC Radio 1 in 1998 from Heart 106.2, where he started in 1995 after working in local radio in Hampshire, Bristol and Manchester.
A source has claimed the director general at the time of the 2016 police probe, Tony Hall, did not know about the sexual assault allegations made by the boy under 16 against Mills.
One BBC executive in London told the Daily Mail today there’s a real belief amongst bosses at the corporation that the timing of Mills’s sacking and the release of the Edwards drama was ‘not a coincidence’.
‘The Huw Edwards drama showed that there could be a reckoning’, they said.
Another senior broadcaster at the BBC added that the claim the Huw Edwards drama was the ‘spark’ is swirling around Broadcasting House.
The BBC declined to comment on the claims.
On
The BBC declined to comment on why he was not suspended or sacked at the time and why they have fired him almost a decade later.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘In December 2016, the Met began an investigation following a referral from another police force. The investigation related to allegations of serious sexual offences against a teenage boy. These were reported to taken place between 1997 and 2000.
‘As part of these inquiries, a man who was in his 40s at the time of the interview, was questioned by police under caution in July 2018.
‘A full file of evidence was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, who determined the evidential threshold had not been met to bring charges. Following this advice, the investigation was closed in May 2019.’
Another senior broadcaster at the BBC has said there is ‘total shock’ at the corporation after Mills’s sacking.
There were apparently ‘audible gasps’ from staff as they were told on Monday morning in an email from BBC director of music Lorna Clarke.
Several stars who have spent time with him described him as ‘kind and generous’ and that friends are ‘devastated’ for him.
He was also described by a radio colleague as ‘hugely popular’ internally.
‘It is not like the BBC to act so fast’, a household name broadcaster told the Daily Mail.
Another source claimed that wild rumours are flying around Broadcasting House about the reason for his sacking.
‘No suspension period or prolonged investigation does not bode well’, another insider said.
