Jo Whiley breaks down in tears as she reveals her dad's final moments before his death
Jo Whiley took to Instagram on Tuesday (21.07.26) and announced the death of her dad, Martin.
Jo Whiley broke down in tears as she revealed her dad's heartbreaking final moments before his death.
The BBC Radio 2 presenter took to Instagram on Tuesday (21.07.26) and announced Martin had passed away.
Just a day later, Jo, 61, revealed on her and 55-year-old DJ Zoe Ball's Dig It podcast that he went to hospital with a "massive" bleed on the brain, and Martin was later moved to a ward to be "kept comfortable", with his family knowing he would not recover.
Jo added: "He's not going to get better, and so everyone's been to say hellos and goodbyes."
After Zoe offered her support as Jo got teary, the latter said seeing the children in the family upset as they watched their grandad ill was "the hardest thing".
She added: "They say that hearing is the last thing to go, so we've had some really nice conversations talking to him."
Jo went on: "I think the first time I saw him, we were trying to get a reaction from him. We were trying to read signs as to whether he could hear us, and he was responding initially, which was wonderful.
"And then everybody got time with him on their own, and it was really, really important just for it to be us, just alone. And you do say those things that you've never said."
The DJ - who has daughters India, 34, and Coco, 17, as well as sons Jude, 27, and Cassius, 25, with her husband, music executive Steve Morton - revealed Martin would never have allowed the family to have such honest conversations with him because he "never wanted to talk about feelings or emotions".
She added: "So it was kind of funny because there was nothing he could do to stop us from telling him how much we loved him, and say thank you. So we were like, 'Sorry, dad, we're just going to say these things, and you're going to listen to them.'"
Jo then shared she had been "dreading" telling her 53-year-old sister, Frances, who has cri du chat syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that can cause severe learning disabilities, that Martin was going to die.
But the entertainer said: "Frances has been extraordinary, and she completely understands what is going on; she knows that he's not going to get better; she just keeps saying, 'Not going to die?' and instead of sugarcoating it, you just have to say, 'Well, he is not going to come home.'
"And she kind of pauses, and she's like, 'OK, where's he going?' And my mum is a really, really devout Christian, and she says, 'Well, he's going to Jesus, and that's where we all go.'
"And Frances is like, 'OK, how old is he?' He's 86, [and she says], '87?' And we're like, 'No, he's not going to be 87,' and she thinks about it, and she's like, 'OK.'
"And she's just been so tender with him, it's been beautiful to watch. I've talked about her accepting grief before and coming to terms with things."
Jo cried as she revealed that Martin said Frances' name when he was "on the cusp of consciousness".
The star recalled: "And then there was this really lovely moment when she was leaving the other day, and it was when he was on the cusp of consciousness, and she was going, 'Say my name, say my name!' And he actually said the word, Frances.
Tearing up, Zoe replied: "Oh wow."
Jo added: "And it was lovely, it was really good. She keeps saying, 'Daddy said my name!' It couldn't have been better."
