Paul O’Grady is "completely stunned" at the death of his good friend Cilla Black.
Cilla, 72, passed away on Saturday night (01.08.15) at her Spanish home in Estepona, Costa del Sol, from "natural causes" and Paul, 60, admitted it is "like the fun has gone".
He added to the Daily Mirror newspaper in an emotional tribute: "The lights are turned down now. That’s it. God I’m going to miss Cilla. It doesn’t seem real. I’m completely stunned."
Cilla and Paul became close after meeting on chat show ‘Parkinson’ in 1998 and he helped her through the death of her husband Bobby Willis the following year.
Cilla was later there for Paul when his partner of 25 years, Brendan Murphy, died in 2012.
Paul said: "When my partner died she was always on the phone. She was full of advice and a shoulder to cry on. When he was ill, she was on the phone every day and offered her help.
"She had been through that with Bobby. She was a good soul and always there for me, somebody I could rely on."
But it wasn’t all sadness and Paul revealed that the pair enjoyed some wild times together.
He said: "She always said about me that Bobby had sent a guardian angel but it had a tail and hooves.
"Because it was me who took her clubbing and took her to bars and got her into all sorts of mischief, which she loved by the way. She loved being out until six in the morning."
Paul O’Grady pays tribute to Cilla Black
