I'm A Celebrity star in tears as she recalls late mum's final days

Television critic Grace Dent appeared on Lorraine to talk about her new book, Comfort Eating, where she spoke about her beloved mum and the heartbreaking moment she lost her

Grace Dent has opened up about the heartache of losing her mum in 2021, sharing her story on ITV's Lorraine. The I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! alum discussed how she comforted her mother during her final weeks and months. Grace, aged 51, was on the show to chat about her new book, 'Comfort Eating', which delves into her own go-to comfort foods, the memories they evoke, and pays homage to her late parents. She expressed to host Lorraine Kelly that "food and the saddest times in life go hand in hand", a sentiment Lorraine echoed, reports OK!.

"This is a funny book, but it was written around the time I lost both of my parents. There's nothing unusual here, I'm at that stage of life where your parents go and you know, food and caring, was the main thing during that point. And I think it is for so many people," Grace shared openly with Lorraine. She also touched upon the role food plays as life draws to a close and reminisced about the sweet treats she shared with her mum in her last months.

Grace added: "It ends up being trays delivered to beds and chats about the time you've got left. And, the portions getting smaller and smaller, and trying to find things on the supermarket shelves that people can still eat. And I always say one of the last things with my mum was those little individual trifles."

"We loved trifle, we loved cake, we loved eating cake together. We spent our entire life on an 1,000-calorie diet trying to get 'beach body ready', until Friday when it was chippy tea and it was all down the pan again! Our last weeks and months together, it was just delivering those bits of love."

Grace lost her mum in 2021 and has been candid about the grief she's endured. Chatting on Kate Thornton's White Wine Question Time, Grace previously shared her raw emotions about being present in her mum's final moments and the current journey of self-discovery: "We were all together as a family up to the point where she died. And I just think that, if I am to look back on my life, I'm never going to regret that," she confided to Kate.

She further reflected: "It's a really strange part in my life. I'm at that point where every day, I think of something, I just want to ring her. Now she's gone, I'm trying to work out who I am now. You start to realise that so much of what you do comes with calling them to tell them because it'll make them happy."