One year after his unexpected death, the husband of Paul O’Grady spoke out about his final day.
In an interview with The Mirror, former dancer Andre Portasio opened up about how he’s coping with the loss.
“Suddenly, you start remembering where we were, and what we were doing together. It reminded me just how lucky I was to have had him in my life,” he said.
Death of Paul O’Grady: It was ‘the most ordinary day’
Paul died on March 28, 2023 at the age of 67 from sudden cardiac arrhythmia.
At the time of his death, he had been in a relationship with Portasio for 18 years and married for six.
Reminiscing about the last day with his husband, Andre described it as “the most ordinary day” at their home in Kent.
He described how he had woken up early to go down to the fields, while Paul had slept in after a night of touring, eventually waking up “really late”.
Andre joked that the For the Love of Dogs presenter “loved a good moan”, and would usually “stagger down from the bedroom moaning it was the beginning of the day”.
Paul’s final day
On a typical day, the presenter and dog lover would meet with his producer before walking their five dogs alone.
However, on this day, Paul finished his meeting but asked Andre to join him on the dog walk as he wanted to show him some new trees he’d bought.
Andre said: “He had a meeting with his producer, Malcolm Prince, about his radio show and he was looking very smart in a white shirt, and had a good aura. I’ll never forget saying to him how handsome he looked, and him joking back saying ‘[bleep] off!'”
He was on wonderful form.
After returning from their walk, they settled down in the living room to watch the news. Andre shared that Paul insisted on only watching “the presenter Sangeeta Bhabra – he loved her”.
“He was on wonderful form and then we settled down in the living room and switched on the telly to catch up on Kent ITV News. He always insisted on watching the presenter Sangeeta [Bhabra] – he loved her and would never allow me to put the BBC on. It was all about ITV. He left to get some tea, and I heard this loud bang. But because the house is big and old, I didn’t think of anything at first.”
He was ‘frozen with shock’
After noticing two of their dogs running back and forth from the kitchen agitatedly, Andre decided to go and check on his husband. He said that he “walked to the kitchen to start putting some food on” and started “taking things out of the fridge”.
However, he said he suddenly noticed Paul lying on the floor. He described being “frozen with shock”, but his initial thought was that Paul was just unconscious.
Andre quickly phoned the paramedics and was instructed to perform CPR on his husband until they arrived. He described being “exhausted” by the time the ambulance arrived.
Death of Paul O’Grady: Paramedics arrive
Once the paramedics arrived, Andre shared that the team spent an hour trying to resuscitate him until they eventually pronounced Paul O’Grady dead.
Opening up, Andre spoke about “the saddest part” of the ordeal. During the resuscitation – he was attempting to keep the dogs out of the room.
However, Arfur – Paul’s favourite dog – broke free. Hee “nuzzled his face as he always did on Paul’s shoulder, as if to say ‘wake up'”.
Andre described it as “heartbreaking”.
Paul’s legacy
One year on, Andre is determined to celebrate Paul’s legacy. He spoke out about the history he left behind – including iconic items like his famous Lily Savage dresses and wigs.
Andre said that “they don’t belong to me, they belong to the nation,” after mentioning his intention to donate some memorabilia to the V&A.
He then added that it’s “weighing on me very heavily how I take his legacy forward”
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