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Home / The Country

TV presenter Phil Spencer shares heartbreaking confession his parents would have wanted to go together

NZ Herald
20 Aug, 2023 08:36 PM3 mins to read

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Presenter Phil Spencer. Photo / IWC MEDIA / Channel 4

Presenter Phil Spencer. Photo / IWC MEDIA / Channel 4

TV presenter Phil Spencer has shared more heartbreaking details following the tragic death of his elderly parents.

Anne and David Spencer – parents of the Location, Location, Location star - passed away last week after they were driving to lunch when their car came off a bridge and into a river on their farm at Littlebourne, near Canterbury, Kent.

Now, 53-year-old Phil has confessed his mother had long believed she and her husband would “go together” and he thinks they “would have held hands under water and quietly slipped away” according to The Telegraph.

The UK news outlet reported the star said his mother, 82 and father, 89, had recently been battling Parkinson’s and dementia respectively and he saw their sudden passings as “a good end”.

Sharing a lengthy post on Instagram, the TV star said the fact his parents will never have to “mourn the loss of the other one” is a “blessing”.

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Phil Spencer (@philspencertv)

“As a family we are all trying to hold on to the fact Mum and Dad went together and that neither will ever have to mourn the loss of the other one, which is a blessing in itself,” he wrote.

“Although they were both on extremely good form in the days before (hence the sudden idea to go out to lunch), Mum’s Parkinson’s and Dad’s dementia had been worsening and the long-term future was set to be a challenge. So much so that Mum said to me only a week ago that she had resigned to thinking ‘now it looks like we will probably go together’. And so they did.

“That was what God had planned for them – and it was a good plan.”

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He went on to share further details of the accident, stating the car was going “very slowly” before it toppled over a bridge on the farm and landed upside down in a running river.

Stating that neither of his parents suffered any physical injuries, the TV personality said he doesn’t believe the couple would have “fought” the rush of water. Phil continued to say the carer of David and Anne was in the back of the car and managed to break free through a window and rush to get help from his brother, however, despite his best attempts at saving their parents, he was unable to.

Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer.
Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer.

“Their carer was in the car and managed to climb out of a back window so the alarm was raised quite quickly. As many farmers do, my brother had a penknife and so was able to cut the seat belts. He pulled them out of the river but they never regained consciousness.

“Although desperately sad and shocked beyond all belief, all family are clear that, if there can ever be such a thing as having a ‘good end’, this was it.”

Phil’s father was pronounced dead in hospital with his mother passing shortly after. Kirstie Allsopp, the co-host of Location, Location, Location, paid tribute to Phil’s parents sharing it was a “great source of solace” to her friend that that parents were together when they died.

David and Anne shared four children and eight grandchildren.

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