DEVASTATING
Inside Paul O’Grady’s family tragedy after dad ‘died of a broken heart’ after thinking his mum had died of heart attack
AS a 17-year-old boy, Paul O'Grady suffered a tragedy that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
The much-loved television and radio star, who died unexpectedly yesterday aged 67, was no stranger to adversity during his eventful life from coming to terms with his sexuality to battling through depression and surviving two heart attacks.
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But perhaps his toughest week came in his late teens when his father Patrick O'Grady died from a broken heart just hours after his mum Molly Savage had a heart attack.
Sharing details of the family tragedy on Desert Island Discs in 2003, Paul said: "My mum had a serious heart attack when I was 17. She was taken into hospital and the doctors said to my father 'she's not going to last the night' and my dad was dead in the morning.
"He just collapsed on the spot. The doctor said 'if I could put on the death certificate that he died of a broken heart then I would'.
"My mum survived for another 13 or 14 years. Dreadful.
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"I'll never forget it. I was stood next to him and he went down like a ton of bricks.
"He literally couldn't cope without my mother."
Paul was born in Tranmere to working class parents Patrick and Molly, who put him through staunchly Catholic schools.
After leaving school he began to question his sexuality and worked shifts in a local gay bar.
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He began sleeping with his close friend Diane Jensen , who was nine years his senior.
He wrote in his 2008 autobiography At My Mother's Knee... And Other Low Joints: “I kept my gay side from her at first, reluctant to come out to her, though things might have turned out less complicated later on if I’d been honest about my sexuality in the first place.
“The fact was I was unsure of what my true sexuality was, still experimenting with both sexes, unable to make up my mind which bus to get on.”
He had kept any inklings of being gay from his parents - and at age 17 his mother and father both had heart attacks in the same week.
Days later Diane broke the news she was pregnant with Paul's child.
He recalled their conversation: “‘Paul? How are you?’ ‘Well, me dad’s dead and me mother’s at death’s door. Things couldn’t get worse, really.’ I could hear her sobbing at the other end of the line.
‘Oh, God, they could and they have,’ she said, catching her breath. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘I’m pregnant. You’re going to be a father.’”
His only daughter Sharon was born in 1974 and Paul committed to paying £3 a week in child maintenance.
He tried to move to London to earn more cash and made friends with drag queen The Harlequeens.
But he soon became homesick and returned to Birkenhead where he met Lily’s legendary sister Vera - in reality a drag performer named Alan.
Paul took up a job in a local abattoir FMC Meats, where he worked in the accountants office.
He described a highlight of his time there as when a pig escaped and somehow ended up on a bus.
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He said in his book The Devil Rides Out: “Somehow it managed to climb the stairs and get up on to the top deck, knocking an old woman over.
“Poor things must’ve been terrified, the pig and the pensioner.”
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