Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte Hawkins has spoken about the "physical pain" she felt after the death of her dog. The discussion on the loss of pets aired on the ITV daytime programme on Tuesday, August 25, following the news that BBC Radio 1 presenter Greg James is mourning his beloved labrador, Barney.
Presenters and guests share their experiences
Richard Madeley and Charlotte Hawkins hosted the show, joined by Nigel Havers and RuPaul's Drag Race UK star Danny Beard. Richard opened the conversation, saying: "I want to talk about what happens when you lose a pet." He added: "If you don't have pets, if you've never had a cat or a dog and suffered the loss of when they die, you don't fully understand. You think, 'it's just an animal,' you don't quite understand the impact that it has and the hole it tears in your heart."
Nigel Havers replied: "It is huge, because they become a member of your family, dogs have a better life now than ever before, quite rightly. But god and his wisdom have failed, because I think dogs don't live nearly long enough."
Charlotte Hawkins on losing her dog Bailey
Reflecting on Greg James' emotional update, in which he and his wife, author Bella Mackie, revealed they were going on a "grief trip" after the loss of their labrador, Charlotte said: "I can completely understand this, when we lost our dog, we had our dog Bailey until she was 16 and a half so we had her for such a long amount of time. You know they're getting older, we'd had her for all of that time and you know what's going to happen. But still, it hit me like a physical pain, I couldn't talk about it for ages, and then it took us years to get another dog, which we have now."
Nigel, who has a 10-year-old poodle, shared his devastation at the idea of not having his dog around. Danny Beard said: "Me and my best friend, we've got two dogs that are sisters. I've got two dogs and she's got one of my dog's sisters, we sometimes sit on the phone and we start welling up about when ours are going to go. We don't know what we're going to do."
Richard Madeley's confession and Danny Beard's revelation
Richard, speaking about his cat dying of leukemia many years ago, added: "He died of cat leukemia when he was two and a half, it happened very quickly, we came home one day and he was like that next to his food bowl, and the next day we had to have him put down. I was absolutely gutted for months, I couldn't understand, I couldn't believe the impact."
However, a confession from Danny changed the presenters' tone. They said: "When they go too soon, it can be even worse. You expect them to live for 20 years and they go… I had a parrot drop off the perch once, and I've still got her in my freezer." The reality star revealed they plan on getting their parrot stuffed, but currently, the pet is in tupperware in their freezer. "I'm not lying," they insisted. "She's in her bed, in her tupperware, on the second bottom shelf. I don't get her out, I'd be terrified if she looked like someone at the top of Everest."
Richard replied: "That is the most bizarre confession I've ever heard on Good Morning Britain." Their comments came after Greg James spoke about the death of his beloved labrador. He said he was "completely floored" by Barney's death and couldn't stop crying in a heartbreaking social media post. "I know how loved this unbelievably daft farty brilliant dog was and I adored sharing him with everyone on here," he said. "I can't believe our little mate has gone and it's very real and very raw," he added. "He was the best."
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.
