Nigel Havers has become Debbie McGee’s "personal counsellor" following the death if her husband Paul Daniels last year.
The 58-year-old performer was left devastated last March when the legendary magician lost his battle with a brain tumour at the age of 77 but she has admitted her grieving process has been made easier since meeting the 65-year-old actor, who also lost his wife Polly to cancer in 2004, while filming a new show called ‘Carry On Barging’ together.
Speaking on ‘Lorraine’ on Friday (10.02.17), she said: "He’d been through what I was going through so when the cameras stopped rolling he would say ‘are you OK? Do you want to sit and talk and have a cup of tea?’
"Then in quiet moments he would sit and chat to me and tell me how he got through it and how he moved on and carried on working and has met a lovely lady who he’s happily married to now. He said, ‘It will happen to you Debbie, at first you think nothing good can happen again but it does,’ and that was like having my own counsellor, on tap."
And, although the blonde star thinks it’s too early to start meeting new people, Debbie has admitted she would like to find someone eventually because she needs "company" and a "variety" of people around her.
She explained: "You don’t always need your girlfriends, there are things you talk to chaps about that are different and you need a variety of company. The hardest thing is you don’t want to take the photographs down and you want to talk about the person you’ve lost."
Although Debbie was very "independent" before she married Paul in 1988, she admitted going out on her own after his passing 11 months ago made her miss him even more because she had no one to talk to and felt like an "orphan."
She said previously: "Before I married, I was independent and lived alone. But there is a difference between choosing to be alone and when it’s forced upon you.
"For the first few weeks, when I went out shopping I’d walk around feeling a bit like an orphan. When Paul was here if I went out I’d ring him or he’d ring me and say: ‘While you’re out could you get, whatever?’
"Or if he heard something on the radio, he’d call to say: ‘This is on the radio. Turn it on. You’ll enjoy it.’ "
Nigel Havers is a ‘personal counsellor’ to Debbie McGee
