Andre Portasio, the widower of the late Paul O’Grady, has shared a tear-jerking account of their dogs’ reaction to the entertainer’s death during his first TV interview since the tragedy.
Paul O’Grady passed away unexpectedly last year at 67 due to sudden cardiac arrhythmia, leaving his spouse Andre heartbroken. In an emotional segment on Loose Women, Andre spoke about coping with the loss and recounted a poignant memory involving Paul’s cherished dogs mourning their owner.
On the show, he said: “I love watching him and to me, now I’m sort of accepting he’s gone. It took me quite a long time to get to this position I think.
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“To begin with, it was really a shock. I stayed in the house to begin with.
(Image: ITV)
“I was getting letters and flowers and it was too overwhelming to begin with. In hindsight now, I see how much it has really helped me and the support, and I want to thank everyone that wrote to me.
“It was just the kindness of everyone that will stay with me forever.” Moved by a letter from a fan, Andre described taking the dogs to bid farewell to Paul, allowing them to process their own sense of loss.
Andre shared a touching story about his fans’ concern for his dogs after his partner’s death, revealing the heartfelt mail he received. He said: “I received so many letters. A lot of people didn’t know the address, so you would receive the letter and it would be ‘Paul O’Grady, home, Kent’.
(Image: ITV)
“I opened this one letter and it was an old lady, I think she was 85, and she was very worried about the dogs, and that the dogs needed to say goodbye. And that stayed at the back of my mind, I thought I must attend to this,” he explained.
He also recounted the poignant moment he took his dogs to bid farewell to his late partner and added: “Just before he was buried, I took the dogs to say goodbye and it was really interesting to see that some of them engaged with Paul. But others they just swept out as if he wasn’t there anymore. They’re doing fabulous [now].”
Andre, who has been candid about his grief, spoke about the day Paul passed away in an emotional interview with The Mirror. “The day he died, we had the most ordinary day,” Andre begins.
(Image: INSTAGRAM)
“I’d got up early and gone down to the fields as I was working in the woodland. Paul had come back from touring, so was a little bit tired and woke up really late.”
He continued, sharing the intimate details of their last morning together: “Usually, he would stagger down from the bedroom with his hair on end and moaning it was the beginning of the day. He loved a good moan but he had a meeting with his producer, Malcolm Prince, about his radio show and he was looking very smart in a white shirt, and had a good aura. I’ll never forget saying to him how handsome he looked, and him joking back saying f*** off!”
Andre went on to share that when the pair had settled down for the evening, Paul made his way to the kitchen. But when he was there Andre heard a loud bang but didn’t think anything of it at first.
But as Andre went to take food out of the fridge, he saw Paul on the floor. Noticing a cut on his head, he thought the star was “probably just unconscious”.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
