Tragedy struck, not once, but twice for Eurovision 2025’s official BBC host, Graham Norton, after he lost two of his beloved companions.
With UK’s country-pop girl group Remember Monday set to represent the nation with their original song What the Hell Just Happened? during Eurovision 2025, all eyes will be on the musical extravaganza.
This year, the Eurovision Song Contest will once again see comedian and talk show host Graham Norton sporting the hat of ‘official commentator’ during BBC One’s live broadcast of the grand finale on May 17.
Norton will be entertaining audiences straight from Basel, Switzerland and people are eagerly awaiting his scathing remarks and witty observations during the four-hour broadcast; something that Norton has hilariously criticised on several occasions.
As everyone waits with bated breath for the cultural phenomenon that doubles up as the biggest music competition of the year, let’s take a closer look at the offscreen life of the song contest’s BBC host.
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Everyone suffered in a myriad of ways during the Covid-19 pandemic and Graham Norton was no exception. Appearing on The Late Late Show in October 2020, the comedian spoke about spending his summer and a chunk of the lockdown in Cork, Ireland.
Having attended Bandon Grammar School, Norton spent most of his childhood in the southern Ireland city and was happy to be isolating there, instead of in London.
Speaking to host Ryan Tubridy, Norton detailed his time in Ireland: “It was lovely. I had such a gorgeous summer. London was quite stressful so as soon as I could, I got out of there and quarantined for two weeks and never really stopped to be honest.
“You are in the middle of nowhere, you don’t see anyone anyway. It has been lovely. It is things like having the dogs, the sea, and trees. They don’t know that the world has gone to hell in a handbasket.”
However, tragedy struck – not once, but twice for Norton as he lost two of his beloved companions, Bailey and Madge, both while he was in Ireland, albeit at different times.
While talking about his beloved 15-year-old labradoodle, Bailey the Bear, Norton called him his ‘significant other’ and shared that his pet had tragically passed away.
The famed broadcaster spoke of his heartbreak and shared: “He was 15. He was Bailey the Bear, he had a lovely last day down drinking his fill out of the stream.”
Shining a light on Bailey’s last days, Norton revealed: “He was on his last legs, he wasn’t very mobile or anything. He had a seizure, and I took him up to the emergency place up in Cork and we said goodbye. I was so glad we got him back here.
“It was dramatic and awful and yet anyone who has done this knows, that moment when you get to give your dog that gift is kind … it’s kind of the greatest act of kindness you can do for that animal.”
Bailey’s passing came on the heels of the death of Norton’s other dog, a rescue named Madge, who also passed away during Norton’s time in Ireland.
Less than a fortnight before publicly speaking about Bailey, Norton had revealed that Madge had also passed: “My little terrier, Madge, she went at Christmas, but again, lovely that they got back to Ireland which is their favourite place in the world. When I used to bring them back to London, they looked at you kind of going ‘we know you have a better house than this, we were just there’.”
Source: Mirror
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