GMB: Richard Madeley says Nicki Minaj isn't funny
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Good Morning Britain presenter Richard Madeley, 65, hasn’t held back in airing his views on star-studded award ceremonies. The star claimed the glamorous events are “bogus” and hit out at celebrities being given “political platforms” during their acceptance speeches.
It comes after Richard hosted The Dementia Hero Awards 2021 earlier this year, which he said he was happy to do, as the recipients “truly deserved” their prizes.
While hosting the awards, the journalist was joined by Alzheimer’s Society Ambassadors Angela Rippon CBE, Carey Mulligan, and Sir Tony Robinson, alongside his wife Judy Finnigan and Anne-Marie Duff.
Speaking out in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, Richard said: “There are so many kind of what I would call bogus award ceremonies around, aren’t there?
“Which are kind of pretty pointless and sort of, you know, all about celebrity egos being massaged and being front and centre.
“And providing them with political platforms to make inane statements and comments.
“But it was just refreshing to be asked to present something real and awards that are truly deserved, rather than the sort of manufactured and invented.”
Richard became a patron for Alzheimer’s Society after his beloved mum Mary died of cancer while also battling Alzheimer’s disease.
Opening up on their final conversation before her tragic death, Richard revealed his mum had asked him to describe her own mother to her, as she “couldn’t picture her” in her final days.
He explained: “My mother, about 12 years ago now, she was in her early 80s then, but she began to get some strange symptoms.
“And she was diagnosed on the same day as having both lung cancer, and Alzheimer’s, which came as a complete shock to everybody, but she was terribly laid back about it.
“I remember her calling me up the day that she got the diagnosis. From the outset, I remember her saying two things.
“She said that she felt she had a good life, which was longer than she expected, and she specifically said that she hoped that it was the big C that would take her, and not the Alzheimer’s.
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“And that’s interesting, that reflects a survey that was done not that long ago.”
Detailing the results from the survey, Richard said: “Until fairly recently, when people in their 60s were asked what was the big health issue as they move into the beginnings of old age, by a clear majority for decades they would say cancer, but that’s changed now.
“People now put, first and foremost, they put dementia as the thing that they’re most concerned about getting, because it doesn’t just take your life and make you ill ahead of your time, it takes your personality, it takes you.”
He continued: “Anyway, mum did succumb to the cancer first, although the dementia, I wouldn’t say it was advanced, but it was very apparent that it was beginning to get a grip on her. Her memory was going, her focus was going.”
Richard also recalled being by his mother’s side on the day she died and the final words she said to him.
The presenter said: “She was ravaged by the cancer at that stage and she was very heavily doped up on things that she kept slipping in and out of consciousness.
“But I remember my last conversation with her, which which had overtones of Alzheimer’s, but also very simple Christian faith.
“She opened her eyes and croaked through very dry lips, she said, ‘Oh Richard, can you describe my mother to me?’
“And I said ‘I never knew her, because she died in Canada when I was a baby but I’ve seen pictures of her, why?’
“And she said, ‘because when I get up there’, and she pointed to the ceiling, ‘I can remember what my father looked like and Malcolm my brother, but I just can’t picture my mother, and it will be so embarrassing not to recognise her’.”
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