George Gilbey: Gogglebox star's mum Linda McGarry suffered stroke following his tragic death earlier this year
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Linda, 74, has said that she suffered a stroke six months after George’s death. The former Gogglebox and Celebrity Big Brother star died at the age of 40 after falling through a plastic skylight while working at a warehouse in Essex in March 2024. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
An inquest into his death found that George’s injuries were “consistent with a fall from height”. Two men were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence, with one released under investigation while the other was released on bail.
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Speaking to OK! Magazine, Linda revealed that the stress of George’s death appeared to trigger the health scare, saying: “I’m so lucky that my friends were here and they got me to the hospital. On the tests, they couldn’t find where it had come from, but I think it’s the shock of George. There’s no bigger stress than what I went through.”
Linda appeared on Gogglebox alongside George and her late husband Pete, who was George’s stepfather. Pete died in 2021 at the age of 71 after a battle with bowel cancer.
George’s death was another blow to the family following Pete’s death. Linda told The Mirror that both her and her granddaughter, Amelie, were preparing to spend their first Christmas without him, with his eight-year-old daughter writing a heartbreaking letter to Santa.
Linda said: “She’s done her Christmas list and it will break your heart. It says, ‘You can forget all of that if you bring my daddy back’. They had a Daddies Day [at school] and a girl was crying because her parents had broken up and Amelie said, ‘My daddy’s always with me everywhere I go. He’s in my heart.’”
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