Martin Lewis has left Good Morning Britain presenters, including Kate Garraway, in tears as he opened up about mum's tragic death when he was only 12.
The money expert opened up about his loss while he was promoting a new campaign called 1 Million Minutes, organised by the charity Grief Encounter which he's a patron of.
He said: 'I lost my mum just before I was 12. It was very sudden. And it's something I struggle to talk about... It took me a very long time to recover from that.
'I worked with the charity but when they asked me to be a patron it took me a few months to decide, because I can't talk about it and the reason I became a patron is so that in 30 years when somebody in my position is asked about it they will have had the counselling and the work to be able to sit here and not be in the discomfort I'm in now.'
While Kate Garraway struggled to contain her tears, viewers at home also took to social media to applaud his courage to speak about it. One said: 'This is so sad to watch. Grief is horrible. Sending Martin and everyone else who is dealing with grief lots of love 💕'.
A second said: 'Had a very similar experience to you, i hope every child gets the help they need to be able to let go and rebuild... The hours spent crying alone in my room!! Actually breaks my heart too think if my children were too go through what i did!! Well done martin, i applaud you.'
Another said: 'Oh my goodness. Full credit to @MartinSLewis for his bravery here - that was clearly incredibly difficult for him, and it would have been easy for him to decide not to do it. But he stepped up, to help others. Honestly lovely.'
This is not the first time the TV presenter has opened up about his mum's death. Back in March, he spoke of his tragic loss, explaining how he lost his mum.
Clearly very emotional to be talking about it, he said: 'What happened to me was, three days before my 12th birthday, I went to Sunday school, or Jewish Sunday school, as it was.
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‘Someone strange picked me up and took me home. I knew them but it wasn’t what I was expecting and when I went home I was told there had been an accident. My Mum and my sister had been horse riding and there had been an accident involving a lorry, and nobody told me how serious it was.'
He then confessed that he didn’t realise how serious the accident had been, and that his worry was that his mum wouldn’t be able to come to his birthday party.
‘I always remember worrying because my mum was in hospital and I was worrying that she wouldn’t be there for my birthday in three days time.
‘And my grandmother, my Dad’s mother, said to me, “It’s alright, she’ll be here for your Bar Mitzvah,” I’m a Jewish boy, that happens when you’re 13, and I thought nothing of it.'
The TV presenter went on to say that his mother’s death marked the end of his childhood.
‘The next day my dad told me that she had died that morning and that was the end of my childhood, that moment. I cried every day until I was 15 and then I stopped crying and became brittle.’
As part of the campaign, three charities - Cruse Bereavement Care, Contact the Elderly and Grief Encounter - are asking people to pledge time to help people who have lost a loved one and reach out in support of those who are lonely.
It follows a survey by Good Morning Britain that found that more than half of Brits felt lonely after losing someone they were close to, while a third said such a loss had had a detrimental effect on their mental health.
