Paul O'Grady has opened up about a health battle that stopped him from working for two months. The presenter suffered with long Covid after contracting the virus last year and feared he may never recover.
Paul, 67, who previously, had two heart attacks, said the condition "finished him off" and left him sleeping all the time. The TV star was so concerned about his health that he contacted his cardiologist fearing there was something seriously wrong with him.
In an interview with the Mirror, he said he became "really ill" after getting Covid-19 while filming in Malta. “It wiped me out, I was shocked at how bad I was," he said. "I was a good two months getting over it. My breath had gone."
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Paul spent the summer recuperating at his Kent farm, where he recalled being unable to go outside and feed his pigs without stopping to sit down "two or three times" on the way. He eventually contacted his heart doctor, who took an X-ray and diagnosed him as a recovering Covid victim.
Paul said: “All I did was sleep. I’d wake up, go downstairs and sit on the couch and then pass out for another four hours. I’d get up, have a cup of tea and then go back to bed and sleep all night, it was very odd. I just felt terrible with it. I’ve never slept so much in my life. I’d had all the jabs, but it just finished me off.
He added: "At one time I thought: ‘Is this ever going to go? Am I ever going to get my energy back and stop being tired?’ It wasn’t pleasant.”
Paul caught the virus in July while filming the second series of Sally Lindsay’s The Madame Blanc Mysteries. "We got one day’s filming in the can and that night I felt a bit off and then the next day I felt like I was dying," he said. "I had a vicious headache and a terrible cough. I spent nine days in a hotel room going slowly around the bend."
Paul said he felt better after flying back home, but was shocked to find himself back in bed again just a couple of days later. "I just couldn’t shake it off," he said. He eventually recovered and is now back at work, currently playing Miss Hannigan in a nationwide tour of the musical Annie.
In August last year, Paul quit his BBC Radio 2 show after nearly 14 years of presenting. In his final show, he thanked his listeners for tuning in and getting involved over the years, saying it “wouldn’t have been the same without you”.
The presenter hosted the Sunday afternoon programme for nearly 14 years, before a schedule shake-up saw him regularly swapping with comic Rob Beckett. He said he had decided to leave the programme as he “wasn’t really happy” with the new arrangement.
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