Good Morning Britain viewers were left wincing over Richard Madeley's awkward tribute to Olivia Newton-John on the ITV show today.
The Grease star and four-time Grammy winner died aged 73 on Monday August 8 surrounded by family, with her husband John Easterling announcing the sad news as he shared a statement via Olivia's Facebook page.
Olivia, who played Sandy in the hit musical movie Grease, had been battling breast cancer for 30 years, though her cause of death has not yet been confirmed.
Appearing on GMB with co-host Charlotte Hawkins, Richard was joined by others paying tribute to the actress. Among them was Jane Seymour, who spoke about her fond memories of the star.
But Richard went on to say: "I wish I’d met her, I wish I’d interviewed her - it never happened. I always regretted it actually as the years went by. But that publicity picture, I don’t know if you can see it on your end, let’s see that again, the one with the denim shirt…
"There’s a picture we’re showing of her here, it was a very famous poster of her in the 1970s. She’s just looking at the camera, she’s backlit by sunshine, her hair’s down, she’s wearing a denim shirt...
"And I was saying earlier in the programme that that poster was on the wall of a radio station I used to work in back in the 1970s and, I’m not exaggerating, it basically stopped traffic in the corridors. It was up there for months and even after months, the guys would just stop and look at it. And (they) just get lost in her beauty and I would have loved to have told her that."
Fans were left cringing over Richard's monologue, with one tweeting: "Does make me laugh everytime someone as a story Richard Madeley always faces a similar situation and make it about himself. @gmb."
While another fumed: "#GMB This Richard madeley has lost the plot needs to be removed from presenting this show he is an embarrassment to the viewer and many people will agree with me."
A third wrote: "Richard Madeley asking some daft questions about ONJ ,no wonder she never gave him an interview #GMB.”
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV
