Dale Winton’s heartbreaking final days revealed: from financial troubles to struggle with depression
Dale Winton is fondly remembered as a cheerful, exuberant TV presenter perhaps best known for fronting shows including Supermarket Sweep, Celebrity Fit Club and Hole in the Wall.
The beloved star, a television staple who was even the subject of This is Your Life back in 2000, had a hugely successful career and was a household name, but had a series of personal struggles, including financial difficulties and depression.
Dale’s life was recently celebrated in the Channel 5 documentary The Dale Winton Story: One Of A Kind, where his friends and colleagues discussed the star.
The TV personality passed away aged just 62 in April 2018, and there was an outpouring of tributes from fellow celebs, with Graham Norton posting on X: “Dale Winton gave me the best bit of showbiz advice I ever got - Don’t quit the hit! Thank you Dale.” Davina McCall added: “I am so so so sad to hear about Dale Winton a lovely, warm, kind, sensitive, generous soul with a touch of naughty! RIP.”
His agent released a statement at the time which read: "It is with great sadness that we can confirm the passing of Dale Winton who died at home earlier today. While we know many will share this terrible loss, we ask that you respect the family's privacy at this time of grief."
Those in the know have spoken about his difficulties at the time, with his close friend Gloria Hunniford opening up about his health struggles, but denied reports at the time that he had died by suicide.
While appearing on Loose Women, she said: “It's really upset me in the intervening times, so many people say to me, 'It's so sad that he killed himself'. He never would have done that. What actually happened, he had his assistant in the house and she said they had a coffee and a chat and he said to her he's not feeling great.”
She continued: "He went upstairs to have a bath or a shower, she thought it was quiet, she went upstairs in half an hour's time and sadly found him dead in bed. Dale had a lot of things going wrong, he had pain with arthritis, he had a heart complaint, he had a chest infection, and we all know how the winter affected that. He had asthma as well.”
His close friend radio host Steve Allen also spoke about how Dale was doing at that time, saying: “He used to say to me: 'I’ve had enough’. I feel happy for him that he’s in a place now where he’s probably going to be eternally young. He won’t age any more.”
He added: “I met him when we were 18. He was a rather large chap, 23 or 24 stone, with hair down to his shoulders and we just hit it off straight away. Yesterday, when I went to bed, I knew Dale Winton. Today, Dale Winton is no more and I can't come to terms with that. I spent most of this morning's show crying. It's really bizarre.”
A coroner concluded that Dale had died of natural causes.
At the time of his death, the presenter was reportedly struggling with some financial issues, and sold his London townhouse for £ 2.6 million just weeks ahead of his death, renting a home in the suburbs instead. It was also reported that he was struggling with depression following the end of a relationship.
His neighbour, Mark Collins, told The Mirror: “The guy said that he wanted to meet Elton John, so Dale arranged a meeting. He flew the guy to London and they had lunch with Elton. When they came back he kind of dumped him. He just said: 'Goodbye Dale'. Dale went into a tailspin on that one.”
He was vocal about his struggle with depression. During a discussion on Loose Women back in 2016, he said: "I always thought, 'Get over yourself.' But my mum died of it. It exists and anybody out there who has had it knows it exists. I didn't want to put one foot in front of the other but for a couple of really good friends." He added that his friend David Walliams was one of the people who "kept [him] going".
Speaking about his funeral, Gloria added: “He was such a loved man, it was a celebration of his life, he had a great send-off. Dale himself above all people would have loved it. It was a humanist service. David Williams read a song as a poem."
