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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Kirsty McCormack

This Morning fans heartbroken for man whose wife died four months after daughter's suicide

This Morning viewers were left heartbroken as they tuned into Wednesday's show and watched an interview with a bereaved father.

Mariano Janin joined hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary in the ITV studio to talk about his late daughter Mia, who sadly took her own life in March 2021.

Mariano believes Mia saw bullying messages on her phone the night before her death and wants parents to be able to access any messages or videos a child may have seen on social media before they died.

Unfortunately, social media firms are not required to hand over data by law so Mariano is still searching for answers.

Speaking to Alison and Dermot, he said: "I believed she had a really bad day at school, first day. And then by social media, because she was until late night online, but the problem is we need access to the phone."

This Morning viewers were left heartbroken as they tuned into Wednesday's show and watched an interview with bereaved father Mariano Janin (ITV)

Dermot, 49, then said: "This is the crux of the issue. You believe she might have been bullied, you have no idea who that could be, but you need access to Mia's phone. Why is that so hard?"

Mariano replied: "Apparently now the phone is open, but for almost one year and a half I didn't get any information. But we need the social media places like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat to share the information.

"At the moment we are in the inquest process, so we have a hearing in September. Waiting to see what the Metropolitan Police can find on the phone and we need access also to all these platforms, but it's not so easy," Mariano continued.

Mariano appeared on This Morning alongside Andy Burrows who is Head Of Child Safety Online Policy for the NSPCC (ITV)

Alison then asked Mariano how he was coping, to which he replied: "After my daughter passed away, four months after my wife suddenly passed away as well, she couldn't cope with the situation and at the moment it's just me and my son and it's hard every day."

Dermot replied: "I'm so sorry Mariano, you're doing so well by just getting up every day and picking up the fight."

Sitting on the sofa alongside Mariano was Andy Burrows, who is Head Of Child Safety Online Policy at the NSPCC.

Andy explained the legal side of things and said: "Right now the processes are deeply imperfect and they're not centred as they should be around too many families like Mariano that are having to deal with this unimaginable heartbreak.

Mariano Janin joined hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary in the ITV studio to talk about his late daughter Mia (ITV)

"We're generally talking about US-based companies here... there's a legal process that kicks in whereby the companies have to then meet these legal requests for data. It takes many, many months at best, it's then at the mercy of lawyers in these big tech companies as to what they'll provide, in what format they'll provide.

"The onus here isn't on giving parents and families the answers that they need and deserve, it's them about thinking about their reputations," Andy added.

Asked what it would mean to him if he could see Mia's phone, Mariano explained: "In a way, I need to get closure, so I need to find what happened to Mia. And I want to know the truth and then I would like to get justice if I can," Mariano continued.

Andy explained that 'the processes are deeply imperfect' when it comes to social media and families having access to information (ITV)

When Alison and Dermot asked Mariano if he'd had much support from Mia's school, he said: "Well, the relation with the school was very poor actually. The school was non-existent after Mia passed away."

This Morning viewers tuning in at home were left heartbroken by the interview, and took to Twitter to comment.

One person posted: #ThisMorning this father looks so broken! Understandably, sending hugs."

Another tweeted: "#ThisMorning My heart is breaking for this man," while a third said: "That poor man. Utterly heartbreaking #ThisMorning."

A fourth person posted: "Oh my goodness this poor man #ThisMorning," while a fifth added: "This poor man! Truly heartbreaking #ThisMorning."

*If you are struggling with mental health, you can speak to a trained advisor from Mind mental health charity on 0300 123 3393 or email info@mind.org.uk

This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV and ITV Hub.

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