In a new segment on Good Morning Britain, Richard Madeley and Kate Garraway reported on the proposed banishment of smoking in open spaces. Noting that he remains divided on the notion, Richard, 68, recalled smoking "60 cigarettes a day" before breaking the habit.
© ShutterstockMusing on the effects of second-hand smoke, the broadcaster told Kate: "Only three or four days ago in this lovely weather, I was having a coffee on the pavement cafe in North London that I like to go to, in the sunshine. The guy next to me lit up, as he was completely entitled to do, and the breeze was blowing it towards me, so I was breathing in his smoke.
"I didn't know whether to say something or not, because I couldn't work out in my head whose right trumped whose: his right to light up and have a cigarette on the pavement over a coffee or my right to have a coffee and read the paper without breathing in foul tobacco smoke," explained Richard.
© Gareth CattermoleThe star – who is married to fellow presenter Judy Finnigan – has spoken openly about his own decision to quit smoking, attributing it to an interview that he and Judy did with the late John Diamond.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2023, Richard said: "For decades I failed to quit. That changed when Judy [Finnigan] and I interviewed Nigella Lawson's late husband John Diamond, who was charting his slow death from smoking-induced throat and oral cancer. Afterwards, I flushed my B&Hs down the toilet and haven't touched one since."
© ShutterstockEarlier this month, Richard made another candid comment to his GMB colleague, Dr Hilary Jones, about his health journey. Appearing on his co-star's podcast, Richard said: "I think what gave my grandfather, father and uncle - their heart attacks... the one that killed my father was that they were heavy smokers.
"My dad at one stage was on two packs a day. He died at 49. He came home from lunch - he was a press officer at the Ford motor company in Essex - he lived very close to the office. It was a few minutes drive so he would often come home for lunch with my mother and he came home one day."
© GettyExplaining that he'd been on his honeymoon with his first wife, Lynda Hooley, at the time, Richard reflected: "He came home saying he felt very strange and a couple of minutes later he collapsed into my mum's arms and another minute later he died. It was that brutal."
Richard decided to stop smoking himself on his 40th birthday.
