This Morning Agony Aunt Deidre Sanders emotionally revealed that her husband of 55 years died just days after she was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List for 2023.
The ITV star appeared on the show to speak about the award for her services to charity and mental health, but admitted the honour was tinged with sadness.
Sanders told hosts Andi Peters and Josie Gibson that her husband Rick had passed away days after she found out about the MBE last month, but was happy she was able to share her news with him before his death.
The 77-year-old said: “A special thing for me, a lot of you know my husband died just before Christmas on 16th December, but this call came through a week before he died, so that was really, really special for me.
“I went and got the email, and I could share it with him and say what had happened. I was with Rick for 55 years, so it was really great.
“He was always a great tease, so he had to get in a few digs first, but he did the next day tell my daughter and tell me just how proud he was so that was really, extra special.”
The TV agony aunt admitted that the honour would’ve always felt “bittersweet” if she had received the news after his passing.
She continued: “It was lovely that we could share that, I think had he died before I got that news, it would have always just been a bittersweet thing so it’s lovely that we could share that.
“I think the important message I want to get across is that we’ve all got problems at some point in our lives.”
Relaying her own advice, Sanders continued: “Nobody is immune to problems and it’s OK to ask for help, it’s really important to ask for help.
“You do those around you a favour if you ask for help so that’s one of the great messages I’m happy to get across...”.
Sanders previously shared that her husband suffered with Parkinson’s disease, while he was also diagnosed with COPD, a group of diseases that cause airflow blockage and breathing-related problems.
In September, she also revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in June but returned to screens in October as she continued treatment.
She told the hosts at the time: “I’m really good, so I had this teeny, tiny cancer, which was spotted on a mammogram, I’ve had surgery, it’s all out, it’s gone.”
