Simon Thomas reveals his son’s memories of late mum Gemma are fading: ‘It’s so hard to hear’

Simon Thomas has shared his heartbreak at realising that his nine-year-old son Ethan is starting to forget details of his everyday life with his late mother.

The Sky Sports presenter’s wife Gemma died in November 2017, just three days after she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia.

Appearing on This Morning to discuss bereavement, the former Blue Peter star said it was “hard” to hear that his son couldn’t remember details of the family’s daily routine.

“[Ethan] absolutely knows that mum is not coming back,” he told presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.

“What’s been really difficult for me in the last week is beginning to understand and realise that his memories of the every day with mum are starting to fade.”

He went on to explain that Ethan had struggled to remember whether his mum used to dress him or drive him to school.

“We were just getting dressed on the landing the other morning, as I’d always done with him,” Thomas recalled.

“He just turned to me the other morning and said ‘Daddy, did you always use to get me dressed in the mornings?’

“And I said ‘Yeah and I’d take you down for breakfast.

“He said ‘When mummy was alive, did she take me to school?’ and I said ‘Yeah, every day.’

“And already nearly 16 months later his memories of the day to day life with mum are fading and that is so hard to hear.”

He went on to say that he planned to use “videos” and “pictures,” as well as “memories [he] can write down,” to keep his wife’s memory alive.

Thomas previously revealed that the loneliness he had experienced in the wake of Gemma’s death had been “brutal.”

“You have a lot of time on your own with your thoughts,” he told Lorraine Kelly last year. “It hurts, it’s a brutal jump from that.”