Susanna Reid is the latest celebrity paying tribute to Michael Mosley following his “extremely sad” death while holidaying on a Greek island.
The 67-year-old TV personality was with friends at Agios Nikolaos beach on Symi before going missing during a walk by himself to the centre of the island on Wednesday.
Clare Bailey Mosley confirmed a body found on Sunday morning in a rocky area near Agia Marina beach on Symi was her husband, describing the loss as "devastating".Opening Monday’s Good Morning Britain, hosts Reid and her co-host Ed Balls paid tribute to the TV star.
She began: “There is a huge outpouring of love and sadness over the death of Dr Michael Mosley and I think a lot of people saying this morning what an extraordinary contribution he’s made to the health of everybody.
“I think people are absolutely gobsmacked over what on earth could have possibly happened?”
“He went to this gorgeous lovely Greek island, he had been there before with his wife, he just leaves the beach to make his beach back to the accommodation.
“I don’t know… everyone’s scratching their heads, [he seems to have] taken a wrong turn, perhaps got dehydrated.”
Co-presenter Balls said: “It’s one of those things, it could have been any of us.”
Reid added: "It just seems so senseless really. Of course, this is our top news this morning because his body has been transferred to the Greek island of Rhodes. There there will be a post-mortem. A preliminary examination has ruled out any foul play."
Colleagues of Dr Mosley have hailed the late TV broadcaster, producer and columnist as a "national treasure" and a "kind and gentle man".Mimi Spencer, who co-authored The Fast Diet with Dr Mosley, paid as "immediately likeable, genuinely funny" and said she will "miss him terribly".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, she said: "In person he was very much the sort of figure that you would see on television: immediately likeable, genuinely funny, enthusiastic, he had this innate enthusiasm about life and he was always very generous with his time.
"He had a brilliant line in tangential anecdote which comes out of his broadcasting as well, that his mind would go down rabbit holes and come out with fantastic snippets of information, and talking to him in person was much like that, you never quite knew where you were going to arrive, but the journey was always fascinating."
Chris van Tulleken, Mosley's co-presenter on BBC series Trust Me, I'm A Doctor, said: "Broadcasting can be very competitive and a bit cut-throat.
"Michael set this tone where we have all become friends. On screen we're all pals, off screen we're all pals."
Van Tulleken added: "He really created this generous idea that we were all in this together and so he was endlessly helpful off screen as well."
He later said: "There's so much of his content I just consumed as a normal consumer. I enjoyed it, it entertained me while I was listening, and then it quietly changed my daily practices.
"So my own personal medical routine every day is very, very based on the work of Michael Mosley over the last 10/15 years."
Celebrity chef and healthy eating campaigner Jamie Oliver praised the work Mosley had done for public health with his broadcasting and research.
Oliver wrote on Instagram: "What a wonderfully sweet, kind and gentle man he was. He did such a lot of good for public health with his TV shows and research.
"He was a curious investigator, producer and presenter and often changed the conversation around many public health issues for the better."
Author, TV writer and former doctor Adam Kay said it was "desperately sad" to hear the news, writing on X: "My thoughts with his family - may his memory be a blessing.”
Physicist and TV presenter Brian Cox said Mosley was a "genuinely lovely man" who helped him when he started his TV career.
"Tragic news about Michael Mosley. He was such an important figure both on and off screen in the BBC science unit, and as a mentor to many of us when we started out in science presenting", he wrote on X. "And, as many of our colleagues have already said on here, he was a genuinely lovely man. So sorry for his family. RIP Michael."
This Morning said staff at the ITV programme were "heartbroken" to learn that Mosley, a regular contributor, had died.
In a post on X, the show added: "Everyone at This Morning is thinking of Clare, their four children and the rest of Michael's family and friends at this extremely sad time."
