Steve Wright had heart bypass after BBC axing
Friend says Radio 2 legend was ‘more ill than he let on’
STEVE Wright had a heart bypass shortly after being axed from his Radio 2 afternoon slot and had been ‘more ill than he let on’, a friend has revealed.
Mark Wells, the ex-controller of ITV entertainment, said the DJ had initially been ‘recovering well’ from surgery but thinks it’s ‘probably in the end what came for him’.
The much-loved broadcaster, 69, was found dead last Monday at his £2million London flat.
Mr Wells said: ‘Steve told me he had a heart operation about 14 or 15 months ago after he finished Steve Wright in the Afternoon on Radio 2. He had a bypass which had gone well but I think he had been more ill than he had been letting on at that point.
‘The recovery from that had gone pretty well, though obviously the events of the last couple of days would suggest that’s what in the end came for him.’
Mr Wells, a long-time friend, made his comments in the podcast Behind the Scenes with Colin Edmonds. He added that the DJ, who was divorced from actress Cyndi Robinson in 1999, was ‘never healthy’, pointing to his poor diet and fondness for cigars.
‘He never bothered with romantic relationships again as far as I’m aware and really gave everything to his work, to the point where his health suffered,’ said Mr Wells. ‘Steve was always a hypochondriac. He’d always have some medication with him that he’d bought in America.
‘He was always preoccupied with his health but he never was healthy. He never ate properly. Every meal I had with him was an unhealthy one. He didn’t drink much but he used to smoke cigars. I think in time that took its toll.’
Mr Wells added that Wright even did his own dentistry, once giving himself a filling in the studio.
The DJ’s brother Laurence Wright, 65, said his unhealthy lifestyle, including always eating out, combined with his reluctance to talk about his ‘health issues’, contributed to his death.
According to Mr Wells, being axed from his long-running Radio
‘Gave everything to his work’
2 slot in 2022 was a ‘bolt from the blue’. The show’s ratings had not dropped plus it ‘felt as good as ever’ and he ‘was just shocked at the way it was handled, which I think was brutal,’ he added.
Despite this, Wright stayed loyal to the BBC and turned down big money offers from a commercial rival. He still enjoyed hosting Sunday Love Songs and Pick of the Pops on the station, said Mr Wells.
Yesterday Liza Tarbuck paid a tearful tribute as she hosted Wright’s Sunday Love Songs slot.