Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis reveals his mother has died from coronavirus – and his dad was in intensive care
DRAGON’S Den star Theo Paphitis has revealed his mother has sadly died from coronavirus.
The retail mogul, 61, also said that his father contracted the virus, but luckily pulled through after being in intensive care.
Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis has revealed his mother passed away after contracting coronavirus[/caption]The successful businessman detailed the enormous impact that the virus has had on his life while speaking to Kathleen Saxton for Advertising Week 2020.
Theo, who shares five children with wife Debbie Stocker admitted that the last couple of months have been “testing times” for him and his family.
He explained: “We weren’t generally touched by Covid, apart from one pretty well serious incident where we lost my mother, and my father ended up in intensive care.
“He’s recovered; sadly, my mother had underlying health issues that tipped her over the edge.
Theo with his parents as a child[/caption]“So, it was a stressful time, not being able to go to funerals, not being able to do the normal things that we all do at times like that when we need to grieve. But as a family unit here in sunny Surrey, we coped.”
Theo added that he and his family are trying “desperately” to live their lives as normal as possible following the death of his mum.
The tragic passing of his mother is not the only loss that Theo has faced due to the coronavirus pandemic.
His businesses have also been hit incredibly hard since UK’s lockdown back in March.
The businessman also spoke candidly about the impact this has had on him professionally.
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Theo admitted that he finds it difficult to tell his staff to come back to work as it could put their health at risk.
He said: “We’re trying to say to people, please come back to the office, but you’re going to have to sit on the Tube, next to somebody who’s coughing and spluttering irrespective of mask.
‘”And when you’ve got a family, it’s very, very difficult to tell people exactly what they should be doing so. Lots of the decision making, has to be left to the individuals.”