ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Gogglebox's June Opens Up About The Death Of Her Husband Leon

Gogglebox's June Opens Up About The Death Of Her Husband Leon

The pair were together for six decades and became firm favourites on the Channel 4 show.

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

June Bernicoff, a star of Channel 4's hugely popular Gogglebox has opened up in an interview about her life without her husband and fellow Gogglebox regular, Leon.

The couple appeared together on the show, in which regular folk run the rule over the week's television shows, until Leon's sad death in December 2017 at the age of 83.

The next episode of the show was dedicated to the memory of her late husband, and June sat down for an emotional viewing when it was broadcast.

June told The Mirror that upon seeing the dedication to Leon, she glanced over at her husband's now famous armchair and mouthed: "Leon, they've dedicated the show to you."

She continued: "I looked over to his chair and when I saw it, that was the first time I really, really cried after he died."

Now, June - from Liverpool - has written about her experiences both on the show, and the grieving process thereafter.

The dedication, whilst a heart-warming gesture from the people behind the show, appears to have triggered something extremely difficult and emotional for the 81-year-old widow.

PA

She continued: "I sat here, where I always sat and we used to have a glass of wine while we watched it.

"I thought, 'Oh God, I daren't open a bottle of wine, I might drink the lot'.

"So, I went up to Tesco and bought one of those little bottles and poured that."

"People kept expecting me to burst into tears in the supermarket.

"I mean, you don't do things like that, do you? I say to people, grief is very private.

"Sat there, I just suddenly thought we used to switch off and say, they'd be back on whatever day for filming.

"And I remember switching the TV off, and I had some wine left in the glass and I remember holding it up and thinking, 'Those cameras will never be there again'.

"I remember taking the glass out and going in the dining room thinking, 'The sound desk won't be there, and the monitors won't be there.

"The researcher won't be curled up in the armchair'. And I thought that had gone. It was a part of our lives. It was a chapter of our lives."

Despite airing several months after Leon's death, June said that the tribute episode was the "start of my grieving process".

She explained: "Until that evening, emotionally speaking, I'd almost been in a peculiar vacuum.

"It's hard to explain exactly why and maybe it only makes sense to people who have experienced that kind of loss.

"Leon had always said to me that if he passed away before me, I had to stay positive, keep going and do anything that I wanted to do. I remembered that, and that is what I have done.

"Maybe I am an odd person, though, because that night, while watching the first episode of that 11th series, I felt I was finally able to start dealing with the sense of loss that I had experienced."

Blink Publishing

The pair had been together for six decades, and had become incredibly popular on the show for the combination of Leon's sardonic humour and no nonsense attitude, which was always softened by June.

He died after a short illness that became complicated after he contracted pneumonia and sepsis. June's book, entitled 'Leon and June. Life, Love and Laughter' is out later this month.

Featured Image Credit: Channel 4

Topics: TV and Film, News, gogglebox, UK Entertainment, UK, Channel 4