IT is hard to imagine a hard man like Ant Middleton ever hanging up his boots and slipping into the cosy slippers of retirement.
But the telly tough guy admits he is thinking about it - at least one day.
In an exclusive chat with The Sun, the former SAS: Who Dares Wins star, 42, admits there will come a time when he no longer feels he can be the adventurer we all know and love him as.
And Ant has a special reason to want to walk away from his day job in the future - to spend more time with his family.
"I am working for retirement so I can make up for the sacrifices I have made along the way, and that’s family time and being with my children," admits Ant.
"In order to succeed, you have to make sacrifices, and my personal sacrifices way outweigh a lot of other people’s. I’m away from the family, I'm away from the children for long periods of time."
While he intends to make up for that one day, his children (Shyla, 15, Gabriel, 13, Priseis, seven, Bligh, six and Oakley, 21) will mostly be grown by that point.
Does that mean he is looking forward to being a very hands-on grandad instead?
"Oh, I'm in no rush to be a grandad, because I want my kids to live as much as they can and get a good career behind them before any of that," he explains.
"I will be pushing them to look after themselves before they have the privilege and responsibility of looking after someone else. Once you are a parent, that never stops."
Of course, even if Ant does give up his TV work one day - he is currently filming an Australian series Million Dollar Island, and is working on projects to mark his return to UK screens next year - he will likely always work on his bestselling books.
The accomplished author branched out into fiction last year with the bestseller Cold Justice - starring a loosely autobiographical military hero known as Mallory.
And last month he released the highly-anticipated sequel, Red Mist.
"I love my books, and they will go on so far into the future. No doubt about that," he says, having already sold more than a million books if you count his various motivational non-fiction titles.
"There's no sign of that slowing down!"
Red Mist, published by Sphere, is out now in hardback, RRP £20.
