HE has called her his “rock through tough times” and gushed that she “deserves the world” in a recent birthday message.

But now Jermaine Jenas’ wife Ellie will be facing one of the toughest trials of their 13-year marriage after he was accused of sending “flirty” and unsolicited messages to young women.

Jermaine Jenas previously described wife of 13 years Ellie Penfold as ‘a rock’

The former One Show presenter has four children – three with his wife Ellie

The former England footballer turned presenter, 41, was fired by the BBC after an internal investigation into complaints from multiple women about alleged “inappropriate behaviour”.

Those who have seen the messages, which were allegedly directed to runners who worked on The One Show, were said to have been “horrified”.

The Sun broke the story of the BBC firing Jermaine, who’s paid £190,000-a-year, on Thursday and since then, the corporation has scrubbed him from their websites and removed a giant mural featuring him from their Manchester headquarter’s Media City UK.

In response, Jermaine told talkSPORT listeners: “I can tell you I’m not happy – there are two sides to every story – and I’m going to be speaking with my lawyers on the issue.”

It will be a hammer blow to devoted wife Ellie Penfold, a former model who previously posed for Katie Price’s clothing range – but she is said to be standing by her man.

In the past, Jermaine described her as “a rock” who managed to “keep the family going through tough times” while his presenting career took off.

Since being forced to retire from football in 2016 due to regular injuries, after 340 league appearances and 21 caps for England, he has been on the fast track to the top.

Last year alone, Jermaine was paid between £190,000 and £194,999 for presenting gigs at the BBC. He had work on The One Show, the Euros coverage and the Match of the Day panel.

This comes in addition to his gigs for TNT Sports, formerly BT Sport, including on Formula E racing, a Channel 4 documentary about trainers, a BBC doc about knife crime and radio spots including on talkSPORT.

Until now, Jermaine was the ‘clear favourite’ to take over one of the Beeb’s most prestigious jobs too – fronting Match of the Day, when Gary Lineker steps down, and previously said he would “obviously be up for it”.

Those career highs both in presenting and sports have come at a cost to his personal life – but Ellie has stood resolutely by his side and often picked up the pieces.

He admitted during his football career he was “single-minded and selfish to succeed”, which in turn meant Ellie was often the main caregiver for their children.

The couple have three kids – Geneva, 11, Olivia, eight, and Jacob, two – and the star also has Sancha, 16, who Ellie calls her “bonus daughter.” She lives in the US with her mother.

It seems those same difficulties from Jermaine’s playing career may have reemerged as his radio and TV career began to flourish.