Paul O'Grady had a close bond with his daughter who he shared with a dear friend.
Before marrying his partner Andre Portasio, the 67-year-old lived with friend Diane Jansen and they had their beloved daughter Sharon when he was just 18-years-old. Paul and Diane lived on a rural farm together in Kent for a number of years.
The TV star, who died on Tuesday, had a close relationship with his only child. When Sharon married her childhood sweetheart, Philip Moseley, Paul was the one to give her away, the Mirror Online reports.
READ MORE: Paul O'Grady has died at the age of 67
Sharing details of his daughter's wedding day and his close bond with Sharon, Paul said: “It was a really great day. Sharon looked fabulous and Philip is a smashing fella. They fit together like a pan and lid.”
He added: “Sharon wore a lovely floaty pink dress – because she looks shocking in white. She looked like a Disney princess.”
Sharon, 48, is now a mum of two children to son Abel, 16 and daughter Halo who is thought to be around 14. Paul was close to his grandchildren and shared a picture of Abel on his Instagram account in December.
He wrote: “This little monster is 16 today. Happy Birthday Abel love GanGan xx.”
Paul, who rose to fame with his drag queen persona Lily Savage, was also married to a woman once for 28 years, but it was a marriage of convenience. It came about when he started working at a gay club called Showplace in 1976, two years after daughter Sharon was born.
There he met a Portuguese model called Teresa Fernandes, who also happened to be gay and was facing deportation. To stop her being kicked out the country, Paul agreed to tie the knot with Teresa in May 1977 as a ‘marriage of convenience’.
He later admitted they never had a relationship but remained married for nearly three decades as they lost touch. They eventually divorced in 2005 after Paul’s manager warned everything would go to Teresa were something to happen to him.
Speaking about their marriage, Paul previously said: “Teresa – I call her the lesbian Portuguese barmaid – was lovely. She looked like David Cassidy.
“We worked in a club in Westbourne Grove, London, when I was 22. She was from a very strict Catholic family and was always being hassled by them: ‘Why aren’t you getting married?’ So I said: ‘Come on then, we’ll get married’, and we did.”
Paul added: “We were married for 28 years."
The Blankety Blank star went on to reveal he had forgotten they tied the knot all those years ago, and eventually had to call an end to the marriage when he started to think of his future.
Paul said: "I had no idea we were still married until my manager Brendan said: ‘If anything happened to you, everything would go to your wife. It’s like a real-life Corrie storyline.”
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