TV mystic Acorah dies ‘after very brief illness’
TV mystic Derek Acorah has died aged 69 after a short illness, his wife has said.
The self-styled spiritual medium, whose real name is Derek Johnson, is best known for hosting paranormal reality TV series Most Haunted and for appearing on Celebrity Big Brother in 2017.
His wife Gwen Acorah shared the news in a statement on his official Facebook page, adding that the psychic had been in intensive care after falling into a coma.
Acorah got his big break on TV thanks to Psychic Livetime on satellite channel Granada Breeze, and then followed it up with his own series Predictions With Derek Acorah.
He then went to Living to feature in Most Haunted, where he was the guest medium for several series until he departed after six series in 2005 following claims of fakery.
In 2006, Acorah’s former cohost Yvette Fielding told the Metro: “We tell people everything is real, then it turns out he was a fake, so he had to go.”
After Most Haunted, the presenter had another series called Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns, which ran for three series in 2005 and 2006.
In 2009 Acorah attempted to contact the late King of Pop in a broadcast called Derek Acorah’s Michael Jackson: The Live Seance, but the show was widely panned by viewers and critics.
Acorah was also forced to apologise to the McCann family after he was quoted as saying that their lost daughter Madeleine was dead, although Acorah later claimed he had been misquoted.
He appeared in series 20 of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5, where he came fourth.
Acorah was born in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1950.
He originally had aspirations to be a footballer but his career in the sport ended while he was in his late twenties due to a leg injury.