Chris Evans, pictured with his mother Minnie at London’s Chelsea Flower Show in 2000
BBC Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans’s mother Minnie has died aged 92, it was announced today.
His colleague Vassos Alexander, who usually reads the sport on his breakfast show, stepped in at the last minute today. He read a note from the broadcaster to his millions of listeners.
Mr Alexander said: ‘Chris isn’t here. He has been here. But he had to go just before we went on air. But he’s left a note for me to read out on air. This is very difficult because he is one of my best friends’.
Reading the note, he said: ‘Good morning, says Chris. The reason I’m not with you today is because just before I came on air my mum passed away and I needed to go straight back home to be with my family. But it’s all OK, in fact it’s very OK, mum needed to be at peace.
‘Moreover she needed to be at peace for some time now and as she has throughout her life in death she has brought us together. She was an incredible woman.
Evans celebrates his 40th birthday with his mother on The New Paul O’Grady Show in 2006
‘Anyone who has ever met her will tell you that an ultimately there was no battle lost only a life won. Every single day. I’ll be back tomorrow.
‘If mum had the first idea I might not have shown up today because of her she would have been furious. I hope you have a lovely Thursday. See you tomorrow’.
Evans was very close to his mother, describing her as ‘hard as nails’, and revealed that she once underwent eye surgery without any anaesthetic.
He said in January last year that she had ‘lived through World War Two’ – before recounting how, after being told by the surgeon that she did not really need drugs for the delicate procedure, she opted to brave it anaesthetic-free’.
He also posted a photo on Twitter of his mother, who worked two jobs to support her three children when she was younger, tucking into a slice of pizza – for the first time in her life aged 91.
Evans, who has three children and is married to ex-golfer, Natasha Shishmanian, added: ‘My mum – 91 years young – first ever slice of pizza! She’s broadening her horizons. “It’s time,” she says.’
After the image appeared, people tweeted to say they could definitely see the similarities between mother and son.
Evans agreed, responding: ‘Hilarious. Loads of people tweeting how much I look like my mum. Isn’t that usually the case?’
When the television showman revived his hit 90s show TFI Friday in 2015, Minnie appeared on the programme, much to his fans’ delight.
Minnie raised her three children, Diane, David and Chris, in Warrington, running the local corner shop. She moved down south to be close to her DJ son, who lives in Berkshire.