While paying their respects to Paul O’Grady, who died at the age of 67, Susanna Reid and Martin Lewis had to fight back tears.
After the LGBT+ rights activist and animal lover died ‘unexpectedly but quietly’ on Tuesday evening, his spouse, Andre Portasio, begged fans to “celebrate his life.”
‘I know he would want me to thank you for all of your affection throughout the years,’ he added in a statement.
Tributes have flooded in for the TV personality, who was also known for his drag queen alter ego Lily Savage, most notably from Lorraine Kelly and Carol Vorderman.
On Wednesday, Susanna and Martin, who anchored Good Morning Britain, paid tribute to O’Grady while seeming distraught.
She said: ‘We’re going to remember Paul O’Grady throughout the morning of course.’
Martin added: ‘The thing about Paul, and I hope people forgive me for saying this.
‘You don’t know whether to smile or be sad right now, I’m torn between those two emotions because he was such a funny man and when you think about him it makes you smile he was funny, and then you remember he’s gone.’
‘You can acknowledge the humour and the love and compassion that he brought at the same time, as we mourn his loss, far too early,’ Susanna added.
She subsequently recalled the first time O’Grady came on Good Morning Britain, and when he first discussed his health problems.
‘We interviewed him on the sofa about having a heart attack, cardiac arrest and leaving it before telling a doctor, almost like he didn’t want to bother anybody about it,’ she told viewers.
Later in the show, Richard Arnold, the entertainment correspondent, recalled O’Grady’s “glitter and grit.”
He said: ‘There’s a lot of friends who will be waking up this morning, and many of you tuning in at home, who will be deeply saddened and shocked by this news.’
‘Just looking back there, so many fond memories,’ he continued, recalling the first time he met O’Grady.
‘Back in 1990, he was dressed as Lily Savage in a frock selling ice creams outside a venue, that I was the front of house manager for.’
‘I looked up, and of course it was this handsome man standing there, but I’d only ever seen Paul as Lily,’ Richard explained.
‘I think it’s impossible to overestimate what a trailblazer he was,’ adding that ‘trailblazer doesn’t really do justice’.
‘A man with glitter and grit coursing through his veins.’
Other guests on the show, including actor Nigel Havers and campaigner Peter Tatchell, paid homage to O’Grady.
‘He’s the only person that I’ve ever seen make Julian Clary a corpse on stage, was Paul O’Grady.
‘Julian would become speechless which is very unusual for him.
‘And they were very very close friends, and they lived next door to each other for a while.’
Susanna replied: ‘There’s a huge number of people for whom they did not see this coming.
‘When I mentioned the dogs of course, it was his programme, The Love Of Dogs, multi-award winning, and you know why, because it was just so popular, so warmhearted.
‘And of course he had to resist the temptation everytime he filmed it to take home one of the dogs.’
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1.
Source My Celebrity Life.