Richard Madeley Reflects on Past Smoking Habit and Secondhand Smoke Debate on Good Morning Britain

Good Morning Britain host Richard Madeley made a candid health confession during the ITV morning show, revealing that he once smoked “60 cigarettes a day.” The discussion arose as Madeley and co-host Kate Garraway debated the issue of secondhand smoke in public spaces, particularly in areas like pub beer gardens and children’s play areas.

Reflecting on his past, Richard described himself as “grizzled and old,” admitting that, as an ex-smoker, he has mixed feelings on the topic. “Speaking as a grizzled old git, I usually know what I think about stories like this, but on this one, I’m really split as an ex-smoker,” he said to Manchester Evening News.

Richard shared a recent experience where he was enjoying a coffee at a pavement café in North London when a man nearby lit a cigarette. “The guy next to me lit up, as he was completely entitled to do, and the breeze was blowing it towards me, so I was breathing in his smoke,” he recalled. He found himself conflicted over whether to speak up, pondering, “I couldn’t work out in my head whose right trumped whose—his right to light up and have a cigarette on the pavement over a coffee or my right to have a coffee and read the paper without breathing in foul tobacco smoke.”

Kate Garraway weighed in on the conversation, highlighting the health implications of secondhand smoke. “It’s interesting. It’s whether, actually, being tolerant is the right thing to do for people’s health. That’s the other thing,” she said. Richard ultimately decided to tolerate the situation, admitting, “I didn’t want to make a scene. And also, I didn’t have any right to protest.”

This discussion follows Richard’s previous admission to The Guardian about his heavy smoking habit in his 20s, where he smoked 60 cigarettes a day. He revealed that his decision to quit smoking came after interviewing John Diamond, the late husband of Nigella Lawson, who was documenting his battle with smoking-induced throat and oral cancer. “Afterwards, I flushed my B&Hs down the toilet and haven’t touched one since,” Richard said.

He also shared on the Dr Hilary Show podcast how smoking has deeply affected his family, attributing the deaths of his grandfather, uncle, and father to the habit. “My dad, at one stage, was on two packs a day and he died at 49,” Richard revealed, underscoring the devastating impact smoking had on his loved ones.