BBC presenter Rachael Bland's son told grieving father after her death: 'Daddy, don't worry, it's just us two now'

BBC Radio 5 Live presenter lost her battle to breast cancer in September

The husband of the late BBC presenter Rachael Bland has revealed the words of reassurance from their three-year-old son in the days after she died.

Steve Bland said Freddie told him: “Daddy, don’t worry, it’s just us two now. It’ll be OK.”

Ms Bland, a BBC Radio 5 Live presenter, documented her experience of terminal breast cancer on her award-winning podcast You, Me and the Big C. She died in September aged 40.

Speaking publicly for the first time since her death, Mr Bland told his wife’s former co-hosts Lauren Mahon and Deborah James about her final days.

He admitted that he has since struggled to come to terms with her death, occasionally losing his temper or breaking down in tears.

He said he had had “good days and bad days” with “plenty of challenges”, adding: “You don’t really know how you’re going to be when something like this happens.”

Recalling an occasion when he acted out of character, he said: “I shouted at him [Freddie] because he was being a right pain, [I was] trying to get him dressed. I started crying because it really upset me that I’d shouted at him.

“And he just turned to me and he said, ‘Daddy, are you crying because of Mummy?’ and I said ‘Yes’. And he said, ‘Daddy, don’t worry, it’s just us two now. It’ll be OK’.”

He went on to add that his wife’s final days were particularly demanding for both of them.

He said: “I might be wrong but I just feel that if Rachael had known how hard it was going to be she might have wanted to go into a hospice or something else.”

He added: ”I just don’t know that either of us understood just how tough those last days were going to be – how demanding on her it was, only having me looking after her, and how demanding it was on me.”

Mr Bland said that while his son is still too young to really understand what has happened.

“He’s just full of energy, full of joy, full of life, keeping us busy – he’s fantastic,” he said. “You can’t look at him without seeing Rachael either so it’s a little bit of her all the time just next to me.”