Caroline Aherne's brother Patrick has opened up about the pain of losing his sister. In a touching interview on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, heartbroken Patrick spoke lovingly about the late comedian, who passed away on 2 July after battling cancer for the third time.
"There are many memories of myself and my sister being brought up, but it was always affected by one really bad thing which was cancer, that's part of our history and part of our memory," said Patrick, who has himself battled the disease.
© Photo: ITVCaroline Aherne's brother Patrick appeared on Good Morning Britain to talk about his late sister
"We often had rows and things like that together as brothers and sisters do, but from when we were kids right through to the end, we had a very special bond. You can't put words on it."
In her lifetime, Caroline was diagnosed with bladder cancer, a rare cancer of the retina, and in 2014 embarked on a programme of treatment for lung cancer.
"It seems so unfair that somebody can get cancer three times. At first I thought she was going to get through with it all and she would be ok," Patrick told hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. "I will never forget… when she told me she had three months to 12 months – it was just a horrible, horrible day in my life."
© Photo: ITV"From when we were kids right through to the end, we had a very special bond," he said
He added: "You've got to really understand what an impressive person she was to deal with things like this. She had so many problems in her life. She made me laugh purely by being herself. She was such a funny person, such a clever person."
Also appearing on the show was Caroline's Royle Family co-star Ricky Tomlinson, who paid tribute to his late friend in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Speaking from his home in Liverpool, Ricky said: "She was fabulous. Her skills of watching people and making a joke out of it was unbelievable. But there was nothing sacred, there was no sort of boundaries that she wouldn’t have a go at, and now and again I do little speeches and little talks and I tell some stories about Caroline which I couldn't repeat on your programme this morning because they're very rude, but they're very funny. She was a wonderful person and very generous...I will love her forever."
© Photo: RexCaroline and Ricky starred in the hit comedy The Royle Family together
Of hearing the news of Caroline's death, the actor added: "It was absolutely awful. I'm so glad I didn't know she had it. I never knew until the morning she died and I got a phone call off a newspaper reporter and I'm so glad I didn't know as it would have been painful to work with her and to see her. I watched my own father die with cancer, 40 odd maybe 50 years ago and then there was no support like Caroline had with Macmillan nurses and stuff like that and that was bad enough."
