Martin Lewis has thanked supporters for the “overwhelming” response to his emotional BBC Radio 5 Live interview about losing his mum when he was just 11 – but now the personal finance guru wants to get back to doing what he does best.
This Morning presenter Martin admitted he “couldn’t cope” with social media in the days following the moving chat, even though the majority of the messages he received were sympathetic and “nice”.
“Thank you to everyone who’s sent messages and shared grief… The litres of tears people have told me about,” he said on Good Morning Britain.
Read more: This Morning’s Martin Lewis fights back tears during rare interview about his mum’s death
Referring to Grief Encounter, a charity he is patron of that provides bereavement counselling for children who’ve lost parents, Martin added emotional interviews focusing on his personal life were unlikely to happen again.
“Thank you so much. It’s done the charity good, I hope it has done people good but if I can be honest – that was a one off.
“I want to go back to being the guy who saves you money.”
Martin continued: “I’m very glad I did it, but I couldn’t cope with doing it any more.”
Moments earlier, GMB host Susanna Reid had praised the Money Saving Expert founder for the “incredible response” and for enabling people in a similar situation to open up about their grief, noting she was “deeply moved” by Martin’s talk.
“I wanted to say thank you from all of those people for giving them a voice in a way that I know has affected you and I know you don’t want to dwell on it,” she told Martin, whose head bowed as he listened.
Supportive and grateful tweets continued to be posted today after Martin’s TV appearance.
My heart went out to Martin Lewis over his obvious grief. Yes it’s hard to loose a parent at any age but when you still have so much growing up to do,it must seem absolutely never ending. I know when my friend passed away leaving 2 children aged 5 and 3 counselling helped.
— keala (@keala76945705) March 15, 2018
Only just seeing this – heartbreaking. Thanku for sharing Martin, been thru similar in our family & know what it can do 💔xxxx
— Nic (@SwarbsNicola) March 15, 2018
@MartinSLewis I have just listened to your interview on @bbc5live about loosing your mum. I am about to go to my sons grandad’s funeral today. I am very proud of him as he tried to save him doing CPR. Listening to your story will help me today thank you.
— gordon hunter (@gordonhunter2) March 15, 2018
Earlier this week, Martin said on his blog he was “taken aback” at the response the interview received, which he reflected “was far more costly emotionally than I had expected.”
He continued: “While it was the first time I’d spoken about [her death] publicly in detail, I can’t actually ever remember it in that depth privately either.
“Even my wonderful wife learnt things about it from listening. So I found I was still reeling from doing it even a few days later.”
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