Sara Cox admits she was ‘a complete mess’ after discovering close friend and colleague Steve Wright had passed away while she was presenting her Radio 2 show.
Wright was found dead at his £2million home on February 12 after paramedics were called to an incident at the north west London property.
And Cox, 49, who worked alongside the reclusive DJ at BBC Radio before his passing, admits the tragic news sent shockwaves across the studio floor.
‘I was a complete mess,’ she told Radio Times. ‘We were all in complete shock. I looked out into the production area and people were hugging and crying; it really winded us as a station.’
The presenter was forced to continue fronting her afternoon show, despite struggling to hold back tears, but insists she had no alternative, ‘because you want to be a professional, you want to do right by Steve, you want to do right by listeners and you want to support them in a way, but at the same time to be real.
Sara Cox admits she was ‘a complete mess’ after discovering close friend and colleague Steve Wright had passed away while she was presenting her Radio 2 show
Cox was speaking to the latest edition of Radio Times as she competes on the latest series of The Great Stand Up To Cancer Bake Off
‘Because although the whole nation seems to be grieving, it was his kids’ grief more than anyone else’s.’
Speaking to BBC Morning Live on February 14, two days after Wright’s death at the age of 69, Cox admitted she was still coming to terms with the loss of her friend.
‘I’ve got to be honest with you, it feels to some extent like a family bereavement because we’ve lost one of our own,’ she told host Gethin Jones.
‘There was no build up, there was no warning, we are all just really, really shocked and really sad and we’re all absolutely gutted.’
Reflecting on the immediate reaction to his death, she said: ‘We had thousands and thousands of texts almost immediately, we were just trying to plough through them because people used to listen to Steve as a child on the school run and they’re still listening to him in the afternoon when they’re picking up their own kids.
‘Everybody, the nation, all the listeners, they all genuinely feel like they’ve lost a family member or a good mate.’
She added: ‘He loved radio, he loved his listeners and he loved making people laugh. He was such a perfectionist, he was the king of radio, there’ll be no-one like Steve Wright and we’re going to miss him massively.’
Away from her radio job and an appearance on the latest series of The Great Stand Up To Cancer Bake Off, Cox is promoting her raunchy new novel, Way Back.
Broadcaster Steve Wright died aged 69 on February 12 at his London home (pictured in 1995)
The full interview is available to read in the latest edition of Radio Times, out now
And she admits to having ambitious plans regarding who to cast as central character Josie, should it be adapted for the screen.
‘Why not aim high? Cate Blanchett would do a great job – though I don’t know if she can do a Bolton accent,’ she said. ‘Kate Winslet would be fantastic, too.’
The full interview is available to read in the latest edition of Radio Times, out now.
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