The BBC star was told by doctors months before his death that he needed an implantable defibrillator – but he refused to have the lifesaving procedure
09:40, 01 Nov 2025
Paul O’Grady on his hit shot for the Love of Dogs(Image: ITV)
Even when confronted with a potentially life-saving heart procedure, Paul O’Grady’s primary concern was not for himself, but for others. His friend and producer Malcolm Prince has shared how the star, in his final months, declined an implantable defibrillator as he didn’t want to disappoint anyone.
“He’d signed up to do the musical Annie, he signed up to do the dog show, ” Malcolm revealed to the Mirror. “He didn’t want to go back into hospital to have another procedure and then spend time recuperating. He wanted to get on and live his life but also work. He didn’t want to let people down.”
Tragically, the device could have saved his life.
Coffin is carried into the church at the Funeral of Paul O’Grady on April 20, 2023(Image: Getty Images)
Paul, who had a history of heart issues, sadly passed away from a sudden cardiac arrhythmia onMarch 28, 2023. However, the TV personality had been firm in his decision against medical intervention.
A few months prior, Paul had spent a week at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, and the prospect of being out of action again was too much to bear.
In a text message to his daughter Sharyn, he wrote: “The cardiologist just wants me to have a defib. But no way am I having one of them. He’s being over cautious and besides, I’m nowhere near as bad as I was.”
Joan Marshrons, his manager and close friend, had tried to explain the procedure to Paul in detail. However, Paul was not to be persuaded.
Paul O’Grady during a visit to Battersea Brand Hatch Centre(Image: Getty Images)
“In the last few years, he worried about his own body letting him down and that was all very depressing for him,” Joan reveals. “He was scared of losing control and I think that’s why he wouldn’t have the pacemaker because he didn’t want to be on camera or in front of an audience when the thing kicked in … he would have been embarrassed about it all.”
The final months of Paul’s life are chronicled in Malcolm’s remarkable new book Paul O’Grady – Not The Same Without You, which is being serialised by the Daily and Sunday Mirror. The book, written with the blessing of Paul’s daughter Sharyn, includes candid accounts from his family, friends, colleagues, and celebrity pals.
Interestingly, despite Paul’s openness about many aspects of his life, the book unveils intriguing new insights into the star who held a special place in the public’s heart. “It would have been his 70th birthday this year, and I feel ready to tell his story, and I hope I’ve done him justice,” says Malcolm, who co-hosted Paul’s BBC Radio 2 show for 14 years.
Boom Radio producer Malcolm Prince with Paul O’Grady(Image: PA)
Paul often used humour to lighten the mood around his heart condition. Malcolm remembers how Paul joked that having a defibrillator would mean he couldn’t walk past an electronic garage door without it opening automatically.
“Quips aside, however, it seems his mind was made up,” Malcolm pens. There were moments when Paul appeared to sense his time was running out.
After a hospital visit, Paul’s lifelong mate Moira Stewart remembered a poignant chat during their car journey home.
“As we were driving along the lanes back home, he said to me, ‘I’m not going to be here for much longer.’ I asked him what he meant and pushed him to tell me what the doctors had said to him. He was contemplative, I put my arm around him, and he just replied, ‘That’s it. I think I won’t be here for much longer.'” He echoed this sentiment to Malcolm in a phone call weeks later.
“It’s a conversation I will never forget because he calmly ended our chat with, ‘I won’t make old bones, Malcolm.'”.
Even in the weeks leading up to his passing, while discussing the death of someone close to Malcolm, Paul mused about “not knowing what was round the corner.
“Paul joked about his own age and how he wouldn’t be surprised if his own exit would be ‘sooner rather than later,” Malcolm notes. In their last encounter at Paul’s farmhouse on the day of his death, Paul mentioned to Malcolm that he was revising his will, a statement that “seemed to just hang in the air.”
