Loved by millions, but was loneliness behind Dale Winton’s tragic death at 62?
His warmth, wit and charisma won him millions of fans. But he was haunted by the loss of his parents at a young age — and spent the rest of his life searching in vain for a lasting love to fill the void ...
HE was loved for his dazzling smile and genuine warmth. In fact, everyone who met Dale winton said it was a treat to be in his company. David walliams, a close friend, recalled yesterday that it once took Dale 20 minutes to pop to the corner shop for lemonade because he had been unable to resist having a long natter with an admiring local shopkeeper.
But the TV presenter, who has died aged 62, was unsparing when he talked about his sorrows behind that sparkling facade. He suffered from serious bouts of depression — an affliction which had led his mother to take her own life when he was 21.
He had repeated surgeries to try to fix agonising problems with his knee and shoulder, with his knee pain proving impossible to cure.
His TV career was fading — his Lottery show was axed and supermarket sweep is being revived without him.
and to cap it all, he simply couldn’t find romantic happiness. as he said in January this year: ‘I want to wake up with someone.’
Yesterday, one friend said that Dale winton’s chief problem had been loneliness, and that his troubles started after the break-up of a fraught but serious relationship some years ago.
The friend, a well-known celebrity who prefers not to be named, said: ‘You can have all the friends in the world, but it is not the same. If he had been lucky enough to have a relationship with a man who loved him, then I think he would still be alive today.
‘Like a lot of performers, if you have a job to do and are busy then that keeps you happy, but when things are not that way you need to have someone.
‘I know that he took himself off to Florida to live with this guy, and that his relationship went south and that triggered all of this. It was a few years ago that it went wrong.
‘Dale had been devoted — he would come over to Britain, do his filming, and then head straight back to Florida again. They were happy, but then that was over. after that, he went off the radar. It was really difficult to get hold of him or to be anywhere near him.
‘Everyone tried to keep in touch, but he just didn’t respond. It is understandable, you do it when you are dealing with stuff. I think in the end the problem was loneliness.’
DaLE himself confirmed that he had suffered from depression sparked by a bad breakup, telling the Loose women show in 2016: ‘Listen, there are worse things in the world — but I had depression and I didn’t realise.
‘I had a bad break-up and then I had health issues. I wanted to withdraw, but you know what this business is like. I didn’t look great.’ He added: ‘I would not leave the house. Five years. I’ve totally got through it.’
He later joked: ‘God, I can’t ’alf pick them. People are amazed by my taste. I like them if they’ve not got a tooth in their head, tattoos, the lot. Emotional problems, sign me up. If there’s a man over 45 with a beard, I’m there.’
His friend of 50 years, LBC DJ steve allen, said yesterday: ‘Deep down he was a bit lonely. He needed a partner. He has had some bad picks.’
allen said Dale would hint at killing himself, and had asked him repeatedly: ‘Do you think there’d be a turn-out at the funeral? Please make sure everyone turns up.’
The star was found at his London home after he collapsed on wednesday afternoon. scotland Yard has ordered a post-mortem examination after his sudden death, but detectives are not treating it as suspicious.
In a moving tribute to his friend, David walliams tweeted: ‘Dale was the best company, always outrageous & hilarious. He adored being in showbusiness & loved meeting fans. He devoted his life to making everyone else happy, his friends, the public & his godsons, even though he found it hard to be happy himself. I pray he has found peace.’
There is little doubt the presenter struggled with living alone. In a TV interview in 2016, he spoke of his despair at growing older without a partner. He said: ‘Nobody wants a camp over-60year-old man. I can’t go on dating sites. I’m quite well known, so the minute you see the picture ... it’s desperately unattractive.’
Certainly there were obvious signs of a mid-life crisis for Dale winton, long before the tragic events of wednesday.
The Mohican haircut he sported in 2015 was an alarming attempt to reclaim his youth, and not quite what you might expect from someone who was 60 at the time. He fought hard to turn back time because the way he looked made him so miserable. There was a face lift, a neck lift, liposuction and eye bag removal. He was said to insist on flattering lighting on television because he was so unhappy about encroaching wrinkles.
Rightly or wrongly, he felt it was imperative for him to look young in order to work in TV, and it was true that his career had fallen from the heady period where he was a major name in light entertainment. In 2009, he even advertised a cash-for-gold service.
and on a personal level, he deplored getting older. DJ steve allen said: ‘He didn’t like the ageing process, he hated it. He used to say to me “I’ve had enough”.’
He was also very self-conscious about his figure and worked hard to stay slim. But as he recovered from the operations on his shoulder and knee last year, he wasn’t able to exercise. In an interview in January this year he said he was having to ‘diet like crazy’ in order to keep his weight down.
with his wry outlook on life, he turned his gently swelling figure into a joke, telling the cameras on Dale’s Florida Fly Drive, screened by Channel 5 in February: ‘I love america. It’s one of the few places in the world where I feel thin.’
Further bold attempts at a youthful image included wearing baggy jeans and trendy trainers.
He was spotted driving around Marylebone, Central London, in a glamorous Bentley convertible with the windows down and rap music blaring out.
It wasn’t quite what you’d expect from the camp and cuddly host of Supermarket Sweep and Pets Win Prizes, and it led to talk that all was far from well with Dale.
Certainly he was at times visibly strained when he was presenting the Lottery show In It To Win It around 2014 and 2015 (the show was axed after 14 years in 2016).
In 2015, radio host Chris Moyles wondered: ‘Is Dale Winton OK? Hope so cos he’s such a lovely cheeky scamp.’ And TV presenter Anna Richardson observed: ‘Gosh . . . I hope Dale Winton is OK. He looks very very uncomfortable.’
He seemed breathless at times, and appeared to struggle getting his words out.
The filming schedule for the show was demanding, and it’s possible this took a toll. Unusually, Dale would use a camper van parked in the BBC’s Glasgow HQ while filming, rather than a dressing room. The van had the words ‘Roughing It Smoothly’ written on the back, and boasted a double bedroom and shower room.
Dale used it chiefly as somewhere to sneak off for a cigarette between takes, since smoking is banned on the premises.
Such was his commitment to the show that he missed Cilla Black’s funeral in August 2015 because it clashed with filming.
Cilla’s death was a heavy blow. He formed part of the gay coterie she had turned to after the death of her husband Bobby, and he relied on her wise counsel and firm friendship.
All the more so as he was an only child whose parents were both dead.
His mum Sheree, a glamorous blonde actress who appeared in TV shows with Benny Hill and Des O’Connor, divorced his dad when Dale was ten years old, and his father died suddenly when Dale was 13. Then, when he was 21, Sheree killed herself. She was 39, and it was Dale who discovered her body. Dale recalled: ‘My mother tried suicide many times, she was forever being rushed to the hospital — stomach pumped. Depression’s a terrible thing and the doctor said she means to do it, one day we’re not going to be able to save her despite our best efforts.
‘The medicine she was prescribed was so inappropriate that, in hindsight, of course if we knew then what we know now things would’ve been very different because they treat depression in a very different way today.
‘So there is a sadness to that of course, but some people are hellbent on self-destruction.’
He added: ‘I miss her terribly because she was such a strong influence on me. I think the bond a mother has with her son is like no other. You only get one mother — you only get that bond once in your life.
‘I never felt angry and I never felt betrayed by her, because ultimately it was her choice. And let’s not forget that when someone takes their life, nine times out of ten — 99 times out of 100 — a suicide attempt is a cry for help, so they don’t really mean to do it.’
Dale said he ‘went off the rails a little’ after his mother died, but then threw himself into attempting a showbiz career. It took him nearly 20 years to gain success.
After an early engagement to a girlfriend, he fell in love with a man at the age of 26, but the affair was not consummated. There followed a complicated, addictive and all-consuming romance which, he said, was with an already married TV celebrity.
He said: ‘I honestly feel that I’m living my life like a soap opera. Deep down, what I want is a lasting relationship.
‘There is one person, a married TV celeb, who I adore. I know I could make them happy, but we are destined to stay the best of friends, and that kills me inside.’
Speaking some years ago, he said: ‘We met on the set of an ITV show. I won’t name them because it isn’t fair. I’d never kiss and tell. I think they know how I feel about them, and their other half definitely suspects something, but sadly my love is unrequited.’
For the past dozen years, Dale Winton had spent increasing amounts of time in America, having bought a three-bedroom house in Sarasota, close to the Gulf of Mexico, in 2005. He had long holidayed in Florida, and loved pottering around the gated community by a golf course, spending months at a time in America.
It was here that he conducted that final, doomed romance, after which he was unhappily single.
In 2007, speaking of his private life, Dale said: ‘I tried every which way to make it work, but it was never going to. You reach a point where you think: “I can’t do this any more. It’s wearing me down, making me upset.” ’
THERE were reports a little later that he was involved with a married man, yet again, and that this was worrying his pal, actress Barbara Windsor, who feared the man in question might not have had Dale’s best interests at heart.
He apparently also fell for comedian David Baddiel, who said in 2011 that Dale had pursued him shamelessly.
Baddiel, who has two children with his long-term girlfriend, said: ‘Dale started saying he found me attractive. He said it was because I was so straight.’
Dale gave Baddiel his phone number and a note which said: ‘If you ever change your mind.’ Both men had attended the stag party and wedding of mutual friend David Walliams the previous year.
In one of his final published interviews earlier this year, Dale said: ‘I don’t like Saturdays — unless I’m in a relationship, which I’m not at the moment and haven’t been for a while. It’s more about the Saturday night going into the Sunday morning because I want to wake up with someone. But I’ve taught myself to believe that it’s just another day.’
Three weeks ago, he moved out of his home in Central London — sold for £2.6 million — and into a rented house in North London.
Were there money issues at play as his career dwindled?
Iain Grant, 84, lived next door to him in London for 17 years. He remarked that Dale was very much alone, aside from a weekly visit from cleaners. But he said that whatever his troubles, Dale always put on a happy face. ‘He was such a cheery chap.’
He was indeed, which makes his untimely death at 62 such a sad shock for his many friends in showbusiness and his many fans across the nation.