Jonnie Irwin's wife speaks about what caused much-loved TV star's death for the first time

The wife of TV presenter Jonnie Irwin has spoken in an interview for the first time since he died - and revealed what caused it.

Jess Irwin, who lives near Newcastle, said the A Place in the Sun host lives on in his three sons, WalesOnline reports. The TV star died in February after living with cancer. Jonnie, who was 50 and originally from Leicestershire, and Jess had three boys - Rex, five, and three-year-old twins Rafa and Cormac.

In a post on Instagram Jess said of the interview with Hello! Magazine: "A world Jonnie was brilliant in, a job that made him and others smile. For me I would rather sit back and watch my favourite shine.

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"But Hello was something Jonnie started and I felt it was right I honoured him in doing this interview to close that chapter for him. I miss him more than anyone can ever imagine and so desperately wanted him to be doing this with me still. Thank you @hellomag for the kind team that have been with us the whole journey. Jonnie [would be] proud on another level today of everything you did for me and the boys xxx.”

Jonnie also presented Escape to the Country on the BBC. Jess revealed that her husband died from a lung infection his body was too weak to shake off. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2020, which spread to his brain.

Speaking about the week he died Jessica said: “That whole week, I kept thinking: ‘This can’t be it,’ because we were always told there would be a neurological decline. Two weeks before, he’d been playfully giving me grief for something, so I was still trying to get him to make plans and telling him off when I felt he was being negative. Now I wonder, did he know?

“That’s what makes me really, really, really sad, when I think what must have been going through his mind.” And she said the young twins didn’t see him right at the end but Rex did: “Rex went up to show him something, very close to the end, and I think he knew something wasn’t right because he kissed Jonnie’s hand.”

And speaking of her relationship with him she said: “We weren’t best friends, we were lovers; there was passion."

The full article can be read in Hello! Magazine.