Loose Women pay tribute to tragic Pete Burns – just 24 hours after he had been due to appear on the show
LOOSE Women have paid tribute to tragic singer Pete Burns, who passed away on Sunday aged 57.
The Dead or Alive frontman had been due to appear on the ITV daytime show on Monday, but hours after his death was announced yesterday, The Sun Online exclusively revealed how Loose Women producers had been told "he was unable to turn up".
As the news of his death sunk in, the panel used the opening moments of Tuesday's show to pay tribute to the star.
Anchor Coleen Nolan said: "We are starting with some very sad news today, it’s about the death of Dead or Alive singer and Celebrity Big Brother Pete Burns who died on Sunday aged 57."
Gloria Hunniford added: "He was such a colourful character in every sense of the word and ironically he was due to be on Loose Women yesterday.
"So we are very sorry for the family.
"I was always fascinated by the way he changed his look over the years, I didn’t understand a lot of it, but I just thought the way he changed his look was intriguing."
Guest panellist Christine Lampard also spoke about Pete, who died from a massive cardiac arrest, referring to his appearance during the band's heyday in the 80s before he underwent more than 300 procedures.
Christine Lampard spoke about how good looking Pete had been in the 80s
She said: "We were so used to seeing what his look is now, that when you see pictures and his video back in the day, what a gorgeous bloke he was back in the day."
Gloria added that Pete was someone "you certainly could never ignore," before Coleen once again added how the show was thinking of Pete's nearest and dearest during such an emotional time.
On Monday, an ITV source exclusively told The Sun Online what his management told them on Sunday, when they cancelled his appearance: “Pete Burns was no longer available for this date and as with live television, guests are subject to change”.
Pete’s management then tweeted the sad news hours later, writing on Monday: “It’s with the greatest of sadness that we have to break the tragic news that our beloved Pete Burns of (Dead of Alive), died of cardiac arrest.
“All of his family an friends are devastated by the loss of our special star.
“He was a true visionary, a beautiful talented soul, and he will be missed by all who loved and appreciated everything he was and all of the wonderful memories the has left is with (sic).
“We have no more words, we will make a further statement when we have had a chance to come to terms with our devastating loss.
“He will live forever in our memories.”
Earlier on Monday, one fan had tweeted his excitement at the singer being on the lunchtime show.
They said: “OMG!!!! @PeteBurnsICON is due to be on @loosewomen in half an hour!!! Only caught this by chance!!!” They also attached a screen shot from the TV announcing he was on the show.
Pete was last on our screens when he appeared on Celebrity Botched Up Bodies last month.
The Dead or Alive singer has had over 300 procedures to fix his failed surgeries.
The 57-year-old, from Wirral, Merseyside, nearly died following one reconstructive operation – and the horror is not over yet.
Pete, who says he has “lost count” of the number of times he has gone under the knife, shared his story on the Channel 5 show.
He said: “The number of surgeries I’ve has is probably 300. I hope when I’m 80 and I get to heaven God doesn’t recognise me.”
But a number of fans of the star tweeted their hope that he would now stop having plastic surgery after everything he has been through.
One wrote: “Pete please stop now. #celebritybotchedupbodies” while another added: “Love #peteburns but what has he done to himself #botchedupbodies”.
He says his obsession with changing his looks began over 20 years ago when his hit You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) was storming up the charts.
Pete continued: “I realised I was going to be a visual entity and that I had to look good.
“I had a broken nose. In the punk days somebody head butted me in Liverpool and it went over to one side.
“When you’re young, self-conscious and standing in front of a camera and the photographers are whispering, ‘Can we turn his head to the left?’ you think, ‘I’ll do something about it’.”
Pete forked out £750 to get his nose fixed but when he woke up from surgery he knew something was terribly wrong.
He said: “I woke up covered in blood. There was so much blood it was unbelievable.
“There were tubes up my nose. He’d removed most of my nose and there was just two nostrils and a little bit of bone in the middle. I nearly fainted.”
Pete was due to appear on Top Of The Pops with his band and decided to put an eye patch on to hide the side of his nose that was bad.
He later booked in for reconstructive surgery – the first of many, many corrective treatments.
He admitted: “The amount of surgeries I’ve had are absolutely minimal compared to the reconstructive surgeries I’ve had. Probably 300.”
RELATED STORIES
When Dead Or Alive failed to produce another single, Pete found solace on the operating table.
He underwent four nose jobs, two sets of cheekbone implants and lip augmentations, which turned out to be the “nightmare” of his life.
Desperate for a bigger pout he booked in for lip fillers with the “lip king of London”, however during a gig with the Scissor Sisters he felt a “burning sensation” in his lower lip.
Pete’s flaming lips were filling with fluid and he had to return to the surgeon to get them drained.
He said: “He held me down on the operating table and punched two syringes in.
“At least a pint and a half of yellow steaming fluid was vomited out of the lip.”
Pete’s lips continued to inflate and he was forced to drain them.
Worst still, the permanent filler that was injected into his lips began migrating all over his face.
He added: “I started to develop holes in my skin and if I so much as touched my face there would be an audible hissing and out onto the mirror would vomit this yellow fluid.”
The infection was spreading all over his body and Pete’s lips were at risk of amputation.
He sued the surgeon and received £450k after settling out of court and used the money to have the filler removed.
Pete revealed: “I’ve had a major operation a week for two years to remove it from my cheeks where it had migrated, my Adam’s apple, the back of my eyes…
“They couldn’t do anything about the liver and the kidneys. I had to excrete that out.”
After 200 reconstructive surgeries on his lips to remove all the frightening filler, the surgeon could finally begin reviving Pete’s lifeless lips.
Pete explained: “I had a piece taken out of my stomach to make a lower lip and then a piece taken out of my stomach to make an upper lip shape.
“I was clinically depressed. Two years is a long time out of your life.”
Following his death, tributes have flooded in for the singer, with stars and former Celebrity Big Brother housemates speaking of their shock.
Big Brother's Bit On The Side host Rylan Clark-Neal tweeted: “Absolutely gutted. Such an honour to spin right round with you. Sleep well Pete xxx.”
Got a story? email [email protected] or call us direct on 02077824220