Famous for his straight-talking and much-sought after money advice, This Morning regular and founder of Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis, has given a very rare and personal interview.
In the moving chat, he opened up for the first time about his mother’s death when he was just 11.
Taking part in an interview with BBC Radio 5 host Tony Livesey, who also lost his own mother when he was just 13, Martin revealed how his mother had died just three days before his 12th birthday in a tragic horse-riding accident involving a lorry.
“What happened to me was three days before my 12th birthday. I went to Sunday school, Jewish Sunday school as it was. Someone strange picked me up – I knew them but it wasn’t what I was expecting – and took me home,” he said, visibly very emotional.
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“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.”
Martin, 45, reveals at the time his main concern was that his mum wouldn’t be better in time to make his 12th birthday celebration.
Trying to hold back his tears, Martin was keen to keep private the details of exactly what was told to him the following morning, but added, “The next day, my dad told me she had died.”
Continuing, he described the unimaginable moment as, “The end of my childhood. I cried every day until I was 15 and then I became brittle.”
Admitting he didn’t tell his family or even his wife that he was going onto the show to talk about his mum, Martin said it was his work as a patron for charity Grief Encounter which spurred him on to share his own experience.
The charity helps to support bereaved children and their families following the loss of someone close.
Discussing grief as an “immense pain” and later as “the founding pain of my life”, Martin reveals he didn’t go through counselling himself as such as service wasn’t available at the time.
Describing the moment he was told his beloved mum had died, he added, “If that is not PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) I don’t know what is.”
Martin adds that his experience of returning to school, where his classmates didn’t offer to talk about or even mention his loss, was “awful”.
He says he was spurred on to be bullish during his rise to the top as “nothing could hurt me like that ever again”.
“You can push harder, you can work longer and you can be stronger,” he said.
But added sadly that he would trade all of the success in the world to have his mum back.
Holding back the tears at the thought of his own six-year-old daughter, Martin added that he would do anything “for both of her parents to be around by the time she reaches 25.”
He credits the arrival of his daughter for alleviating the pain he experiences every year on Mother’s Day.
“Even when I married my wife. She would go out with her mother for Mother’s Day and I could not go with her. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t cope with Mother’s Day,” he explained.
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“Only now, thank god, with the great joy of having my daughter. Only now that my wife has become ‘mummy’ has Mother’s Day become something I can cope with going through.”
Martin was inundated with supportive messages from fans following the interview, prompting him to tweet: “I’m reading all your messages. Too many to reply to. The thoughts, shared grief, and simple words from you all are very powerful and much appreciated.”
For more information, visit www.griefencounter.org.uk.
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