Cilla Black – who is the subject of a Channel 5 documentary tonight (Saturday, August 24) – died back in 2015 at the age of 72.
However, the Liverpool-born star had reportedly been fearing for her health for some time before her passing nine years ago…
Cilla Black and secret illness prior to her death
Following her death, a close pal of the star, Terry McCann, appeared on BBC News.
Speaking of Cilla, he admitted that he wasn’t surprised that she’d sadly passed away.
“I wasn’t surprised when I found out she had died. The last thing she said to me was she was going blind, she showed me her hands, she had arthritis. She willed herself to die. She said: ‘Bobby’s waiting for me’,” he revealed.
‘Look at me, I’m a wreck’
Terry then went on: “She just said: ‘Look at me, I’m a wreck.’ I was trying to cheer her up. She knew something we didn’t,” he then said.
He then added: “She knew she was going to die and she said she wasn’t going to linger.”
Two days before her death, a fan of the star had a brief interaction with her at Gatwick Airport.
“She looked amazing. She had her heels on and her hair and make-up done,” the fan told the Daily Record at the time.
Christopher Biggins on final conversation with Cilla Black before her death
In 2015, Christopher Biggins, a close friend of the late star, revealed the final thing Cilla said to him, a week before she died.
“The last time we spoke was just a week before she died. We arranged to have lunch and she said we should go to Barbados over the winter,” he wrote in the MailOnline.
“We were also supposed to be doing a TV programme together in the Spring for Channel 5, driving around Spain to the places we loved,” he then continued.
“At the end of our calls I’d always say: ‘Love you, Cilla.’ She would reply: ‘Love you more, Biggins.’ That will always stay with me. Those words were the last ones she said to me.”
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Cilla Black: The Queen of Saturday Night airs tonight (Saturday, August 24) at 6.05pm on Channel 5 and My5.
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