Cilla Black spent last hours 'drinking champagne and laughing at Jeremy Kyle show', according to son

The TV legend died at her Marbella villa

Cilla Black spent her last few hours drinking champagne and watching the Jeremy Kyle Show, her son has revealed.

The much-loved television presenter passed away aged 79 at her villa in Marbella, Spain in August. She died from a stroke after falling and hitting her head when she lost her balance while sunbathing.

Her son, and manager, Robert Willis has now revealed his mother’s final hours were spent laughing at the Jeremy Kyle Show.

Speaking on Our Cilla, a tribute programme which will be broadcast on Christmas Day, he said: “I’d gone for a jog, gone for a swim and stuff. She was sitting around having a glass of champagne, killing herself laughing at Jeremy Kyle – without the hearing aids obviously – so blaring out across Marbella.

“We hung out and at about 1 o’clock, I said I was going to do a shop. I said goodbye and that was the last time I saw her.”

Willis said his mother had started to require hearing aids and was also suffering from arthritis.

“Her hearing had started to go so she had to start wearing hearing aids. Typical of my mum, she wouldn’t wear them. The thing that really affected her physically was her arthritis.”

Just a year before her death Black had said she wanted to die before the age of 75 so she didn’t become a “burden” on anybody due to ill health.

The documentary, which will be broadcast on ITV at 10.45pm on Christmas Day, also features tributes from Black’s other sons and many showbiz friends including Joan Collins, Ringo Starr, Paul O’Grady and Sir Cliff Richard.

Additional reporting by the Press Association.