Gail Porter revealed last night that her father has passed away as a documentary about her mental health struggles was broadcast again.
The star of Nineties television, 49, tweeted: “Since that documentary, my father passed away, I had him in his wee cremated box by me while I watched. Hard but he had a great life xxx.”
When fellow Twitter users responded with their condolences, she insisted she was “totally fine”, and said: “Love to all. Thank you for always tweeting and being lovely. Kindness is all we need.”
She did not reveal any details about how or exactly when Craig Porter had died. He appears in the documentary.
Porter lost her mother Sandra to breast cancer in 2009.
The mental health campaigner filmed BBC Scotland documentary Being Gail Porter last year and it was originally broadcast in January. It was repeated last night at the start of Mental Health Awareness Week and is available on iPlayer.
Porter shot to fame in the Nineties presenting programmes such as The Big Breakfast, Fully Booked, Live & Kicking and Top of the Pops.
In 1999, men’s magazine FHM controversially projected a nude photograph of her on to the Houses of Parliament – a moment Porter singles out in the documentary as having a negative impact on her mental health.
She claims she knew nothing about the publicity stunt and the negative backlash directed at her caused her mental health to deteriorate.
Porter presented programmes like Top of the Pops in the 90s (PA )
She says: "In 1999 I was presenting the country's top music show, I was one of the UK's most famous female TV presenters and most famously I helped sell over a million copies of a magazine after they projected my image onto the Houses of Parliament. But the celebrity fairytale became a nightmare.
"It's only now I feel able to face up to what I've been through."
In the programme Porter returns to Edinburgh, where she was born, and meets friends, relatives and medical experts to try to uncover the roots and causes of her mental health problems.
She also talks about developing alopecia in 2005, which she says negatively affected her television career, and how in 2011 she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
In 2014 she found herself homeless and slept on a bench in Hampstead Heath, and she was declared bankrupt in 2017.
She also discusses her struggles with anorexia, post-natal depression and self-harm in the programme.
In January, she told Lorraine Kelly that the documentary has strengthened her relationship with her teenage daughter Honey.
“She said she cried and I said, ‘What did you cry for?’ and she said, ‘You didn’t tell me everything,'" Porter said.
"We have got even stronger together, so I got lots of hugs. She’s great.”
