‘I want him to have closure on it in the right way’: Michael Barrymore says he would ‘love’ to meet Stuart Lubbock’s father 18 years after swimming pool death
- Barrymore today called for police to deal with the 31-year-old’s death ‘properly’
- Stuart Lubbock died at TV star’s home in Roydon, Essex, at a party in 2001
- Police arrested Barrymore in 2007 but it was later found to have been unlawful
- He told Good Morning Britain that he’d be ‘happy’ to meet with Stuart’s father
Michael Barrymore has revealed that he wants to meet the father of the man who tragically died in his swimming pool as he called for police to deal with the 31-year-old’s death ‘properly’.
In his first live TV interview in five years, the comedian told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid that he wants 74-year-old Terry Lubbock to finally have closure over his son’s death in Roydon, Essex, in 2001.
Mr Barrymore’s remarks on today’s Good Morning Britain come two days after Mr Lubbock said he wanted to face him on TV to talk about Stuart, who died at a party during which drugs and alcohol were taken.
Michael Barrymore (pictured on today’s Good Morning Britain) says he would be ‘happy’ to meet Terry Lubbock, the father of Stuart, who died at the comedian’s party in 2001
Mr Barrymore opened up about his trouble with addiction as he appeared on Good Morning Britain today for his first live TV interview in five years
Mr Lubbock said his life had been on standby for 18 years as the former Strike it Lucky host appeared on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories on June 9. He also dismissed the interview as the work of an ‘outstanding actor’.
Today the 67-year-old entertainer told Good Morning Britain that he’d be happy to meet with Mr Lubbock.
‘I’m happy to do that any time,’ he said. ‘I want them to get closure on it in the right way.’
He added that he had been ‘cleared of any wrongdoing’ after suing Essex Police for unlawful arrest.
‘I’d love to meet together to try and get some closure on it or to push the police to, as we see it, deal with it properly,’ he said.
Police arrested Mr Barrymore in 2007 but a High Court judge found the officer in question did not have reasonable grounds to suspect him.
Mr Barrymore (left) was unlawfully arrested by Essex Police in 2007 following the death of 31-year-old Stuart (right)
Stuart drowned in the pool and three witnesses, including Mr Barrymore, told police they’d found him motionless in the water. A post-mortem examination found that he Stuart had suffered injuries consistent with sexual assault.
Describing being in the public eye in the aftermath of his arrest, he said: ‘It’s very dark place to go to. All people go to dark places. People say it’s worse when it is on the front pages of the paper and it’s public, it’s actually not.
‘Once you are hurt, you have been hurt, whoever you are. All I know, I had to get myself together to deal with it and I did that. Even if I had to sit on my hands to get through those awful feelings until they went away and then just live my life a day at a time. You have to have this blind faith that things are going to change for you.’
Mr Barrymore – who dominated 80s and 90s TV – also admitted today that in the past he’d been ‘all over the place’ due to addiction.
He used the interview to hint at a comeback, saying the reaction to his appearance on Life Stories had been ‘amazing’.
‘This whole last week, since last Saturday, has been so overwhelming and humbling,’ he said.
‘It takes you years to build your confidence up, a moment to lose it, and then years to climb back and slowly get it back. Especially when you are in the public eye and everything you do is being scrutinised.
‘So just the sheer relief and the reaction from the people, as they make the decision in the end, the public out there make the decision as to what they do and don’t like.’
Asked if he would like to make a TV comeback, he said: ‘I feel like it is the right time and the right place but it is not for me to decide, I can’t give myself work.’