Holly Willoughby fought tears as she and co-host Phillip Schofield interviewed the parents of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn on This Morning.
Their 19-year-old son died following a crash in Northamptonshire in 2019 and US citizen Anne Sacoolas, 45, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey last month, via videolink, to causing his death by careless driving.
Harry’s mother and father, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, appeared on the Wednesday instalment of This Morning after their campaign caused a diplomatic row between the US and UK.
Sacoolas’s guilty plea in court last month marked the end of the family's three-year wait for justice.
Harry’s father Tim said it was the love for their son that kept them going amid repeated setbacks, adding: “I think any parent would do the same. You can’t explain it. When it happens, it happens.”
He went on to describe how he still speaks to his son Harry every morning, telling Holly and Phil: “A friend of mine, she’s a good artist, and she drew a picture of me and Harry at the football.
“It’s at the base of my stairs and every morning I go down and I don't say harry, I say ‘Good morning my boy’. It’s just a thing, I used to call him my boy.”
Holly began to get visibly upset in the ITV studio as Tim continued: “It sort of keeps me going.
“I think it’s selfishly me not letting go in a way, so he’s always in my life. Sometimes I think I dread the time when that will fade and I don’t want that to fade.”
Phillip replied saying he did not think his memory would, to which Tim replied: “I know, but as the years go by – Harry will always be 19.
“His twin brother Niall is now moving on and he’s moving forward. He’s getting better and better and he’ll always get older, whereas Harry won't. I think it’s just my coping mechanism.”
Phillip said: “We talk about this so often here, that when you lose somebody, keeping them in your life and talking about them is principal to everybody's healing.”
Harry’s mother Charlotte agreed and said her aim has always been not to let her son become ‘the elephant in the room’.
She said: “I’ve still got his spare biker jacket that still hangs on the dining room chair.
“I’ve always said when this part of our campaign is done and sentencing is done, that it will be framed in a big box, because he was a big lad, on the wall and I’ll be able to move it from the chair he left it on.
“You can never fully let them go. I touch it all the time, but it’s never been removed from that chair. I put it around my shoulders, but it goes straight back on the chair.”
