Grandchildren Are So Positive!

Gloria Hunniford discusses both the heartaches and the joys of life, 17 years on from her daughter Caron’s tragic death

- Julie Ann Trainor

It’s been almost 17 years since Gloria Hunniford lost her beloved daughter, Caron, 41, to breast cancer, and casting her mind back to those dark days, she describes it as a black hole she thought she would never climb out of.

Since then, she has taken great comfort in the thousands of letters she received from fans following Caron’s untimely death and hearing others speak her daughter’s name.

Here Gloria, 80, tells Woman’s Weekly how she’s learnt to live with the heartache and why she doesn’t have any plans to retire.

‘I’ve lost both my parents, my sister and my former husband died, and although it’s very sad and distressing – none of it compares to losing a child,’ she confides. ‘You carry a child for nine months, give birth to them and treasure them. So to lose them no matter what age they are – that’s the worst kind of grief.

‘You don’t ever get over it, but you eventually learn to live in and around that black hole. It’s a well-worn phrase but you have to continue,’ she adds.

The Loose Women favourite reveals her grief was so heavy when Caron first died in 2004 that she couldn’t comprehend anyone else’s – not even her other living children, Michael and Paul.