"We hibernated for a very long time"
Barry McGuigan and his wife Sandra have opened up on the loss of their daughter in a new TV interview.
The pair appeared on ITV''s Loose Women on Valentine's Day and chatted to panellists Kaye Adams, GK Barry, Katie Piper, and Nadia Sawalha.
The couple's daughter Danika passed away in 2019 at the age of 33, five weeks after she was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Former professional boxer Barry appeared on the latest series of I'm a Celebrity and discussed losing Danika. Nadia said: "I was so moved by that, but I did also wonder, as a wife, what that was like for you [Sandra] to watch that?"
Sandra explained: "I was worried, because even though we are five and a half years down the line, it's nothing. It changes your life forever, and you try and become accustomed to it, but obviously you know, it's changed your outlook."
On supporting each other, she added: "We've always been really good, when one goes down, the other one bounces back up..."
Barry said: "If I went into the catalogue of disasters we've had... Losing my brother to suicide, and then losing my dad at 52, then losing my sister last year, and of all, losing our daughter."
Sandra added: "We hibernated for a very long time", with an emotional Barry continuing: "Just coming out of it now actually."
Sandra then explained: "It [I'm a Celeb] was one of the first things he did. He went straight in there. There was a real vulnerability there, it was a lot."
When asked if the experience on the ITV show was like therapy, an emotional Barry replied: "GK and everybody else [were] so great to me and they all huddled around me when I got upset that day..."
Also in the interview on Friday, the couple opened up on how they met.
Barry told: "We lived across the road from each other", while Sandra added: "We don't remember life without each other."
The 63-year-old continued: "Her mum and dad had a hardware and a 15-bedroom hotel, we had a grocery business on the other side.
"Sandy went to school in the north, I went in the south, but we grew up with each other really."
Speaking to his wife, he added: "Did I give you a wedding ring, when?" Sandra replied: "When we were eight... Some poor lady obviously lost her wedding ring and some crow picked it up and dropped it in our garden..."
The former boxer continued: "She's still got it."
