Greg James missing from BBC Radio 1 breakfast show following family death

The broadcaster admitted it had been ‘a pretty rotten week’
Greg James has revealed his grandmother has died aged 100
Getty
Tina Campbell20 February 2024
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Greg James is grieving the loss of his grandmother following her death at the age of 100.

The radio presenter, 38, sparked concern when he was missing from his regular BBC Radio 1 breakfast show and took to social media to share his sad news.

Taking to Instagram Stories, he shared a picture of his dog laying on his bed and told his 1.1m followers how he’d had “a pretty rotten week”.

“Got rid of Covid then yesterday my lovely 100 year old nan died yesterday so have spent a nice quiet day with the family,” he explained.

“Excited to be back on the radio tomorrow and very much in need of some fun. With you at 7am”.

It comes six months after James and his family celebrated his relative, who suffered with dementia, reaching the milestone age in August.

In a follow-up post, James, who originally joined the broadcaster in 2007, revealed that one of the ways that he had been dealing with his grief was to admire pictures of actor Andrew Scott at the BAFTAs.

He wrote: “Grief takes many forms. Mine appears to be thirsting after Andrew Scott”.

James, who married partner Bella Mackie in 2018, later thanked fans for sending messages of support, but admitted he was struggling to strike a balance of being honest with his fans and maintaining his family's privacy.  

He penned: “Ps. Thank you very much for your nice messages. You're very very kind. I sort of wanted to say something because I've been out of the loop the last couple of days and haven't really got back to anyone or said anything and my job requires me to be honest and open and I love that about it. 

“However, the new influx of messages means the problem is now exacerbated and I have even more people to reply to. 

“I should have done that thing where families say please respect our privacy which essentially just means p**s off doesn't it. 

“I don't want you to p**s off I'm just trying to be funny. I'M GRIEVING LEAVE ME ALONE. Don't leave me alone. I'm off to look at more photos of Andrew Scott bye xx”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in