Cilla Black doc sees Simon Cowell help 'Blind Date' host get over the death of her husband

Simon Cowell helped Cilla Black to overcome the heartbreak of losing her husband Bobby Willis, a one-off documentary has revealed.

In Cilla: The Lost Tapes, a new ITV special which features previously unseen home videos discovered by Black’s sons, the late Blind Date can be seen spending time at the X Factor judge’s home just a few years after her partner’s death in 1999.

“We are at Casa Cowell,” she tells Cowell – who is filming the group on camera – as she climbs out of a vehicle. “We are just about to go to The Ivy.”

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“I do not remember this... at all,” TV executive and pal Nigel Lythgoe laughs as he watches the clip back. “I don’t remember Simon Cowell being that nice.

“Having Cilla come over was just fantastic. We had the best of times,” he added.

Elsewhere, former I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! star Christopher Biggins explained that while Black used to live “an independent life”, she made sure to always have “good friends” around her.

Later on in the show, Black opens up about losing Willis to lung cancer when he was just 57 years old.

“It’s hit me, Bobby isn’t coming back, he’s gone. It has taken two and a half years for it to sink in that he’s not coming back.”

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She continued: “I would give my right arm to have him back, he’s not coming back.

“When Bobby was dying of cancer he told me to go on and do it... Lights, camera, action and I did it. God knows how I did it, I was a total wreck after the show.”

Cilla: The Lost Tapes is currently available on ITV Hub.