Cilla Black’s Son Reveals Her Fears and Struggles Before Sudden Death at 72

Cilla Black’s son, Robert Willis, recently opened up about the fears his mother lived with before her sudden death at age 72. The beloved Blind Date presenter passed away nine years ago today (August 1) from a stroke caused by a fall at her Spanish holiday home in 2015.

Robert discovered his mother’s body at the villa after she lost her balance and fell on the terrace. Reflecting on her passing, Robert admitted he found some comfort in the fact that she didn’t have to endure old age, which she greatly feared.

He told the Mail on Sunday, “Her mother suffered from osteoporosis and in old age, slowly became a shadow of her former self. That was my mum’s darkest fear, that the same thing would happen to her. So as much of a tragedy as her death was, I think that in some respects she would have chosen to go when she did because for her it was all about having a quality of life.”

Robert added, “It wasn’t the length of time – it was being able to do what she wanted to do.” In the years leading up to her death, Cilla was battling significant health issues, including hearing loss and painful arthritis in her hands. She was also devastated that she could no longer wear high heels. “In her heart and in her head, she was incredibly young, so I think she found it all difficult,” Robert explained.

Cilla’s childhood friend, Terry McCann, shared that her death was not entirely a shock. He believed that Cilla felt her late husband, Bobby Willis, who died in 1999, was waiting for her. “I wasn’t surprised when I found out she had died,” he told BBC News. “The last thing she said to me was she was going blind, she showed me her hands, she had arthritis. She willed herself to die. She said, ‘Bobby’s waiting for me.'”

Terry further explained that Cilla seemed to know she was going to die. “She just said, ‘Look at me, I’m a wreck.’ I was trying to cheer her up. She knew something we didn’t. She knew she was going to die and she said she wasn’t going to linger like her mother.”

Cilla and Bobby tied the knot in 1969 and remained married until his death at age 57. They had three sons, Robert, Ben, and Jack, and a daughter named Ellen, who tragically died just a few hours after birth.