Bill Turnbull kept a secret for his BBC Breakfast co-star for more than two decades.
The late TV star was a man of his word and kept hush for his sofa co-star Sian Williams who suffered an accident when they first met in the 90s.
In a touching tribute, Sian revealed that Bill, who died this week aged 66, agreed to keep the incident a secret and never told a soul.
The pair met in Arkansas in America during the 1992 US presidential election campaign when Sian was a “rookie” BBC Radio 4 producer.
Bill was the BBC’s Washington correspondent at the time and he was introduced to Sian ahead of producing a Bill Clinton programme.
“I was nervous. It was my first big assignment away from base. I’d just returned to work after having my first child and I was anxious to prove myself as a capable producer,” she told The Telegraph.
“Half an hour after arriving in a hotel in the state capital Little Rock, I met Bill Turnbull in a hotel restaurant to discuss the programme and, over a meal, promptly keeled over and collapsed.
“He called the paramedics and we spent the first evening of our trip in the hospital’s ER department. I was fine - it was probably jetlag and nerves - the trip was memorable, the programme (eventually) was a good one and he vowed never to tell anyone what had happened. He kept that secret for 25 years.”
Sian says that one the flight home Bill joked that he would only work with her again “as long as you don’t pull another stunt like that”.
Less than 10 years later they were reunited when Sian was working on BBC Breakfast at the weekends.
“That friendship, forged in adversity – and laughter – continued and deepened,” she told the newspaper. “You don’t get up at 3.30am every morning to go to work if you don’t like who you’re working with, and we trusted and respected one another. It meant a partnership based on companionship, not competition.”
It comes after an unearthed archive video shows the moment Bill described his 2017 cancer diagnosis as the “worst days of my life”.
The video filmed in 2018 for Channel 4 ’s Stand Up To Cancer shows Bill detailing the days that followed his shock cancer diagnosis.
He explained that he almost ignored the symptoms before finally seeing his GP – saying that he wished he had gone to the doctor sooner.
After his GP told him he has cancer, and that it had spread to the bone, he said: “I thought now I’ve got to deal with the future of having much less of a future than I thought I had.”
He explained: “And then this, like, dark cloud comes down. So, it’s a very difficult moment and those first few days after diagnosis are really horrible. Probably the worst days of my life.”
Speaking about his “amazing life”, Bill explained that he wouldn’t feel upset if his life was to end.
He said: “If it was all to end tomorrow, I would not feel hard done by because I’ve had an amazing life.
“I’ve been incredibly lucky and if one thing comes out of this, it’s that actually, if you know that your time is limited, you appreciate so much more the world around you and particularly the love of my family.”
