Paul O’Grady claims his house is haunted by a smelly ghost

‘When I first moved in here, people used to say they could smell perfume’

Paul O’Grady appeared on the ‘Paranormal Activity’ podcast (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Paul O’Grady has claimed his house is haunted, after smelling a perfume by French fashion designer Jean Patou on the stairs.

The TV entertainer appeared on the Paranormal Activity podcast, which is hosted by his friend, actor and presenter Yvette Fielding.

During the conversation, he recalled smelling the scent of the perfume after guests had previously noticed it.

“When I first moved in here, people used to say they could smell perfume,” he said. “And I couldn’t, I never smelt it. It was about two years later, I got up one night and went downstairs for a drink, and I smelt it on the stairs, it hit me.”

“This is the weird bit,” he continued. “I went to lunch two years ago and the girl who was sitting next to me was a friend of one of the relations of the lady who lived in this house. And she had a message for me, the girl, she said, ‘ask Paul does he smell the perfume’.

“And I went, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Yes, I can.’ And she said, ‘It’s by Jean Patou, or somebody.’”

O’Grady said he then went on eBay and purchased one of the old-fashioned bottles of the perfume, called Joy, “to see if it smelt the same, and it was”.

Later in the interview, O’Grady expressed his wish to return in the afterlife as a poltergeist.

“I can’t wait,” he said. “You’ll be in your kitchen and a plate will go flying, and you’ll know it’s me.”

Additional reporting by Press Association