Watch Eden Blackman's final Celebs Go Dating appearance after star's death announced
Watch the final moment that Celebs Go Dating relationship expert Eden Blackman appeared on the Channel 4 show, following the news of the star's death aged 57.
Announcing the news on the dating coach's Instagram page on Tuesday (24 June), his family said he died over the weekend following a 'long illness'.
In his final appearance on the hit dating series in 2018, Blackman smiled as he enjoyed a fireworks display with his fellow hosts as well as celebrities in Cape Verde.
Tributes have flooded in for the star, with his Celebs Go Dating successor Paul C Brunson saying, 'may he rest in paradise', and co-star Tom Read Wilson describing his 'kindness and generosity of spirit'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Rod Stewart on Glastonbury: 'I wish they wouldn't call it the tea time slot'
"Did you know I can run 100 meters in 19 seconds?"Rod Stewart, Sir Rod Stewart, is boasting about his physical prowess. And why not?At the age of 80, he's still cavorting around the world, playing sold out shows, recording new music and even writing a book about his beloved model train weekend, he'll play the coveted "legends" slot on Glastonbury's Pyramid stage... although the former headliner isn't 100% happy about his billing."I just wish they wouldn't call it the tea time slot," he complains."That sounds like pipe and slippers, doesn't it?"He's also persuaded organisers to extend his set, securing an hour-and-a-half slot after initially being offered 75 minutes."Usually I do well over two hours so there's still a load of songs we won't be able to do," he says. "But we've been working at it. I'm not gonna make any announcements between songs. I'll do one number, shout 'next', and go straight into the next one."I'm going to get in as many songs I can." It's not like he's short of choice. Sir Rod has one of the all-time classic songbooks, from early hits with the Faces such as Stay With Me and Ooh La La, to his solo breakthrough with Maggie May, the slick pop of Do Ya Think I'm Sexy and his reinvention as a crooner on songs like Downtown Train and Have I Told You last time he played Glastonbury, in 2002, he was viewed as an interloper – sitting awkwardly on the bill beside the likes of The White Stripes, Coldplay and first, "the crowd was wary" of the musician, who "looked to be taking himself too seriously", said the BBC's Ian Youngs in a review of the a peerless setlist of singalongs won them over. By the end of the night, 100,000 people were swaying in time to Sailing as if they were genuinely adrift on the surging tides of the Rod has no memory of it."I don't remember a thing," he confesses. "I do so many concerts, they all blend into one." Glastonbury Festival: Five newcomers you don't want to missGlastonbury: Full line-up and stage timesThe secret sets that could take place at Glastonbury One particular show does stand out, though. On New Year's Eve 1994, Sir Rod played a free gig on Brazil's Copacabana Beach, drawing a crowd of more than three million it wasn't the record-breaking audience that made it memorable."I was violently sick about an hour before I was supposed to go on," he confesses."I'd eaten something terrible, and I was in a toilet going, 'huerrrgurkurkbleaggggh'"I didn't think I was going to make it but luckily they got a doctor to sort me out." We're talking to the star about a month before Glastonbury at the Devonshire, a relaxed, old-school boozer just off Picadilly Circus that's become the favoured haunt of everyone from Ed Sheeran to a bit too early for a drink, though, so Sir Rod orders up a venti coffee, shooing away an over-eager assistant who attempts to stir in his dressed in a cream jacket and black jeans, which sit above the ankle to show off his box-fresh, zebra-striped trainers. His white shirt is unbuttoned far enough to display a diamond-encrusted necklace with the crest of his beloved football club, then there's the hair. A bleached blonde vista of windswept spikes, so famous that it earned a whole chapter in the singer's Marriott of The Small Faces once claimed that Sir Rod achieved this gravity-defying barnet by rubbing mayonnaise into his scalp, then rubbing it with a says the musician, is utter "bollocks"."Nah, nah, nah. I used to use sugared hot water, before the days of hair lacquer. And I couldn't afford hair lacquer, anyway."But what really sets Sir Rod apart is that soulful, raw and expressive, he's one of rock and roll's best interpretive singers. There's a reason why his covers of Cat Steven's First Cut Is The Deepest or Crazy Horse's I Don't Wanna Talk About It have eclipsed the it's a surprise to learn that he was discovered not for his vocals, but his harmonica fateful night in 1964, he'd been at a gig on Twickenham's Eel Pie Island, and was drunkenly playing the riff from Holwin' Wolf's Smokestack Lightnin' while he waited for the train home, when he was overheard by influential blues musician Long John Baldry."As he described it, he was walking along platform nine when noticed this pile of rubble and clothes with a nose pointing out," Sir Rod recalls."And that was me playing harmonica."At the time, he "wasn't so sure" about his singing voice. But, with Baldry's encouragement, he started to develop his signature sound."I wanted to always sound like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, so that's the way I went," he says. "I suppose I was trying to be different from anybody else." Sir Rod began his ascent to stardom with the Jeff Beck Group and the Faces, a boisterous blues-rock outfit heavily inspired by the Rolling Stones – both on and off the were regularly so drunk he'd forget the words to his own songs, he admits. In the US, the group received a 40-year ban from the Holiday Inn hotel chain after racking up a $11,000 bill (£8,000 – or £54,000 in 2025 money) for trashing their rooms."We only did it because the Holiday Inns would treat us so badly, like we were the scum of the earth," he says."So we'd get our own back by smashing the hotels up. One time we actually got a couple of spoons and chiselled through the walls to one another's rooms."But we used to book in as Fleetwood Mac, so they'd get the blame."How come he never succumbed to drink and drugs, like many of his contemporaries?"I never was a really druggy person, because I played football all the time and I had to be match fit," he says."I would use the word dabble. I've dabbled in drugs, but not anymore."Perhaps a more destructive force was the singer's wrote You're In My Heart for Bond girl Britt Ekland, but they split two years later, due to his persistent marriage to Alana Stewart and relationship with model Kelly Emberg ended the same way."When it came to beautiful women, I was a tireless seeker of experiences," he wrote in his memoir."I didn't know how to resist. And also... I thought I could get away with it."He thought he'd settled down after marrying model Rachel Hunter in 1990, but she left him nine years later, saying she felt she had "lost her identity" in the split hit Sir Rod hard."I felt cold all the time," he said. "I took to lying on the sofa in the day, with a blanket over me and holding a hot water bottle against my chest."I knew then why they call it heartbroken: You can feel it in your heart. I was distracted, almost to the point of madness." However, since 2007, the star has been happily married to TV presenter / police constable Penny Lancaster, with the couple reportedly renewing their vows in week, they celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary with a trip on the Orient Express from Paris, where they met in 2005, to La Cervara in Portofino, where they held their wedding ceremony, in a medieval days, Sir Rod says, family is his priority."I've got eight kids all together, so sometimes I'll wake up in the morning and see all these messages, Stewart, Stewart, Stewart, Stewart… and it's all the kids. It's just gorgeous."His youngest, Aiden, is now 14, and becoming an historian of his dad's work."He's gone back and listened to everything I've done, bless him," says the star. "He knows songs that I don't even remember recording!" His Glastonbury appearance coincides with the release of a new greatest hits album – his 20th. ("Is it really?" gasps Sir Rod. "Oh gawwwwd.")So how does it feel to look back over those five decades of music?"Oh, it's tremendous," he says. "It's a feeling that you've done what you set out to do."I don't consider myself a particularly good songwriter," he adds. "I struggle with it. It takes me ages to write a set of lyrics."So I don't think I'm a natural songwriter. I'm just a storyteller, that's all. A humble storyteller."Maybe – but this humble storyteller is going to draw a crowd of thousands when he plays the Pyramid Stage on Sunday afternoon."You know, it's wonderful," he concedes. "I'll be in good voice. I'll enjoy myself. I don't care anymore what the critics think."I'm there to entertain my people."
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Jamie Theakston makes heartfelt confession as he accepts Best Radio Show accolade at the TRIC Awards following his cancer battle
Jamie Theakston made a heartfelt confession as he accepted an award at the Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) awards on Tuesday evening. The presenter, 54, took to the stage after his radio show Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden was honoured during the evening. However the star, who was diagnosed with stage one laryngeal cancer in October 2024, admitted he didn't know what the future in the last year amid his cancer battle. Beginning with a playful jibe at his co-host Amanda he joked: 'Thank you very much as you know my co host can't stand the man in the limelight so you have me and it's a pleasure to be here.' Jamie then confessed: 'There has been times in the past 12 months where I haven't known where I was gonna be never mind on this stage so I really appreciate it. He added: 'We last won this 10 years ago so I'll see you in 10 years.' Laryngeal cancer is a type of cancer that affects the larynx (voice box) and Jamie first sought went to the doctors after listeners noticed there was something not right with his voice. After undergoing three life-changing surgeries and being told he had 'a one in six chance he might not be able to talk again', Jamie revealed back in January that he was cancer free and would be back on the radio full-time. Last month Jamie revealed he initially kept his possible cancer diagnosis a secret from beloved wife Sophie Siegle for weeks as they enjoyed a family holiday to Japan. The radio host said he was so blindsided by the news he worked hard to 'suppress it' in order to enjoy the trip with their sons Sidney, 17, and Kit, 16. Speaking on an episode of Davina McCall 's Begin Again podcast, Jamie explained that he had to undergo emergency scans just hours before boarding a plane for their long-awaited family trip. 'I didn't tell anyone. At that stage, I thought, well, it might not be cancer. So there's no point really in saying anything,' he said. 'I just tried to suppress it. All I could think was, it's probably not.' It wasn't until the biopsy results came back that the cancer diagnosis was confirmed. 'I then had to go home and tell my wife,' he said. 'She was distraught.' 'I went on holiday with this in the back of my mind, We had a fantastic time - but obviously, this was there in the background.' Taking to Instagram in January Jamie shared the news he was cancer free as he wrote: 'Nice try cancer, but I'm still here! CANCER FREE. Difficult roads can lead to beautiful destinations, and after 3 surgeries and 4 months of vocal therapy, I'm back baby !!' Breaking the news to his sons, he said, was the hardest part: 'I had to explain to them that I was going to be fine, but they were too young to understand. When you say you've got cancer to a 14-year-old, they think you're going to die'. 'My youngest son had been with me when I was told my mum had died of cancer, so he knew what it meant.' Jamie lost his mum in late 2022. 'I was so pleased that she had died before I got cancer,' he said. 'I would've hated for her to know. I'm not sure what that would've done to her. During the chat he recalled how listeners noticed his voice had changed: People mentioned my voice wasn't sounding right,' he said. 'And I knew it wasn't right myself, but you just think - sore throat, nothing serious.' But a visit to a throat specialist changed everything. 'He looked at my throat and said, 'Oh yeah, that's probably cancer' I said 'What do you mean?' And he said 'Nine times out of ten, it is cancer and we need to get you scanned now.'' After his initial surgery, doctors feared some cancerous cells may have been left behind, prompting a second, and eventually a third operation. 'We were getting dangerously close to removing so much of the vocal cord that I wouldn't be able to talk again,' he reflected. But the third surgery was successful, and in January this year, Jamie triumphantly returned to Heart Breakfast alongside co-host Amanda Holden - whom he credits with getting him through it. 'Amanda was incredible,' he said. 'She checked in on me nonstop. She kept the show going. She's a force of nature.' Now cancer-free, Jamie says his recent health ordeal has dramatically transformed his outlook on life. 'It's been a real gift. Often when bad things happen to us, there are good things to take from it. And I really do feel that I am a better person because of what I've been through. 'I hope it'll make me a better parent. Maybe it might make me a better broadcaster. It certainly feels like it made me a better person.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
UK's most popular theme park unveils unlimited entry pass - and it costs less than a single day ticket
It's now cheaper than ever to head to Alton Towers for the day. The Stoke-on-Trent theme park is selling three-month seasonal passes for £59 – better value than a day ticket, which costs £68 if you buy at the gate. The pass provides guests with unlimited access to Alton Towers for three months, meaning you can ride on The Smiler and the park's newest attraction, Toxicator, as many times as your stomach can handle. There are a few dates when this pass can't be used – the August Bank Holiday weekend, and some days in October in the run-up to Halloween. If the three-month pass isn't enough of an adrenaline rush for you, there's also an Alton Towers Gold Pass available for £139. This offers ticketholders unlimited entry to the theme park for a whole year, as well as up to 20 per cent off food and drinks, and discounts on hotel breaks at the resort. But if you're worried about getting bored by Alton Towers, the Merlin Annual Pass might be for you - offering entry to Alton Towers, as well as a wide range of UK attractions, including Thorpe Park, Legoland, Chessington World of Adventures, Madame Tussauds and Cadbury World. Prices for the Merlin Annual Pass start at £99 – although this only includes unlimited off-peak entry. The pass provides guests with unlimited access to Alton Towers for three months, meaning you can ride on The Smiler as many times as your stomach can handle But the Merlin Platinum Pass costs £299, and is completely unlimited. It also offers free parking and free Coca-Cola Freestyle cups with two refill vouchers, as well as 10 per cent off Fastrack and Reserve & Ride in the theme parks. Earlier this month, the Postman Pat Parcel Post ride at Alton Towers finally closed for good, in a move that left some of its most passionate fans 'devastated'. Located within the park's CBeebies Land, it replaced the former Old MacDonald's Tractor Ride in May 2014.
