ROMAN KEMP SAYS HE WAS ON AIR AS BEST FRIEND’S DEATH 'UNFOLDED'

Radio star Roman Kemp has recalled the morning he found out his best friend and Capital FM producer Joe Lyons had taken his own life.

The former Capital Breakfast presenter, 31, left the nationwide radio show in March after seven years in part due to the death of his friend while they were both working at the network together in August 2020.

Roman – who also co-hosts The One Show on BBC – found out Joe had died, aged 31, while in the studio and felt he was ‘living that same day over and over again’ four years on.

Now in a new interview, he has shared more about the moment he found out about the tragedy and how it is ‘so strange to lose someone to suicide’.

‘You know, Joe was the first person I met when I arrived at Capital. My best friend, my producer, and beyond a work colleague, he’s like my boyfriend.

‘We were together nonstop. I had girlfriends that would say Joe was more like the partner in the relationship,’ the broadcaster said on the Auto Trader’s Show On The Road podcast.

He added: ‘And here’s someone that you’ve spent all that time with, seemingly living a different life, to the one that you were told, right in front of you.’

The star – who is the son Spandau Ballet’s Martin Kemp and Wham!’s Shirlie Kemp – explained it was ‘all unfolding’ while he was ‘on air’.

‘He just hadn’t turned up for work,’ the 2019 I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! contestant continued.

‘And when I found out he had died, I remember calling my mum and I remember hearing my mum just scream, and say what happened and I just said, “I don’t know some accident” because weirdly me, my mum and him and my dad had all been [out] for dinner two nights before.’

Roman ‘found out that it was suicide’ at 11am that day, saying that ‘everything changed’.

The TV host outlined how his ‘attitude’ towards suicide, and the people that it affected, shifted after that.

He explained: ‘I was someone that thought the conventional thing was antidepressants, therapy, you know.

‘All of this was wrong. [Joe was] like the happiest person you could ever meet on the outside. Confident, good looking, good job, got money, got a lovely family, owns his own apartment.‘

Four years later, Roman says he is ‘so, so sad’ and ‘so sorry that [he] didn’t push’.

He continued: ‘There’s people out there that will say to me all the time, it’s not your fault.

‘Or they’ll say there’s nothing you could have done, but I’m here to tell you there was. If I had a hint, I would have been there. I live two minutes away.

‘The scary thing is that the person that I love and the person that I hold so close to my heart is ending their life on purpose.

‘I’m on the other side of this now and let me tell you, like, if you’re worried about your mate, speak to him because it is not nice on this side of it.’

Roman also shared that it was a ‘mixture of things’ that drove him to leave Capital, including the recent discovery that he had sleep apnoea, a condition where your ‘breathing stops and starts while sleeping’

‘I did these tests and the way the doctor described it to me was, I was running a half marathon in my sleep and not resting. Because the oxygen intake that I get in my sleep is like 20% of what you would get.’

He explained: ‘I’m tired. I need to look after myself a little bit.

‘I was trying to spin two careers at once. One is telly and the other is radio. But, on the other hand, there have been days where I’ve felt my lowest, and the radio is the thing that has kept me going.

‘I’ve gone through things on air that no one should ever have to go through. You know, so it’s been sad leaving Capital, but I think it’s the right thing.’

In an interview with The Mirror earlier this year Roman said that he was ready to ‘move on’.

‘For me, I’m quite ready to go “Ok, close that door now, don’t go back living that horrible day over again.”

‘That’s sad that obviously affects me but it does. Every day I walk in there and see Joe, that’s a weird thing to do. I think it’s going to be really good for me to move on with my life.’

In 2021, he presented a BBC Three documentary, Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency, about the mental health crisis facing young men. At the time he shared he had been on anti-depressants since he was 15 and attended therapy.

As for what’s next, he has just launched weekly a podcast with his famous father titled FFS! My Dad Is Martin Kemp, where they delve into their dynamic and discover more about each other.

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2024-07-03T15:37:40Z dg43tfdfdgfd