The wife of Sir Terry Wogan is said to be ‘relieved’ that her husband is no longer suffering, following his death from cancer over the weekend at the age of 77.
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Family friend, Father Brian D’Arcy, says he visited Lady Helen and the broadcasting legend on Thursday to say goodbye.
Sir Terry with his wife Lady Helen Wogan
Speaking on Radio 2, he described the star’s final moments as a ‘sad but beautiful occasion’, and he was ‘glad he went without a long, lingering illness.’
He said: “The family will be awfully awfully sad because the centre of his life was his family and children and his wife – Lady Helen especially.
“They will be relieved, though, that his suffering is over.”
Father D’Arcy added that for Terry, ‘everything revolved around Helen’.
“They were married for over 50 years. Anyone who ever went to the Wogan household understands there are no pictures of stars around the walls of his house," he said.
“The family was the centre of his life and everything revolved around the happiness of Helen and the family.”
Terry Wogan was one of Britain's best-loved broadcasters, both on radio and television, for nearly half a century
Since his death, it has emerged that Terry kept his cancer a secret from all but his closest family — telling friends he was suffering from a bad back.
Friend and fellow broadcaster Henry Kelly said: “It is a real, real shame. For so many people it is going to be like a death in the family, they adored Wogan.
Broadcaster Henry Kelly aid Terry's death was like a 'death in the family'
“I didn’t know he was that seriously ill. He put it out that he had a bad back.
“He said he wasn’t going to do Children in Need because, as he quipped, ‘They don’t want an old fella of 77 standing up for ten hours asking for money’.”