Cilla Black didn’t want to live past the age of 75.
The late ‘Blind Date’ host – who passed away aged 72 on the weekend – admitted she didn’t want to become a burden to her family by living into her late 70s and 80s in an interview she gave last year.
She said: "Seventy-five is a good age to go, I still think that way. If things are starting to drop off – like the hearing – and I’ve got twinges in the morning, I do think that."
However, the ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’ singer – who had three sons, Robert, Ben and Jack with her late husband Bobby Willis – confessed Robert wanted her to live for as long as possible.
She told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "But secretly I don’t want to linger. I don’t want to be a burden on anybody. I know 75 is only four years away but I take each days as I find it."
Cilla revealed it was seeing her mother struggle with illnesses including osteoporosis in her final years that made her want to die at a relatively young age.
Speaking about returning to her home town of Liverpool to visit her mum, Cilla said last year: "She said to me once, ‘I’m trying to die but I can’t.’ Oh God, it was heart-breaking. The brain was great but the body wasn’t.
"Eventually she did die when she 84. It wasn’t a good experience. I think that’s what made me feel like this. My biggest fear is going like that when I can’t control my body."
Cilla Black didn’t want to live past the age of 75
