Martin Lewis holds back tears as he delivers emotional message to This Morning viewers

Martin Lewis has fought back tears on This Morning when speaking about the death of his mother.

The money saving expert, 52, was appearing on the ITV breakfast programme today when he took part in a conversation about grief.

Ahead of his segment, hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley asked viewers to call in if they had any questions for Agony Aunt Deidre Sanders, who was set to present an advice segment alongside Annabel Croft.

Both women spoke about becoming widowers last year following the deaths of their husbands and their ongoing grief.

Martin then shared details of his own loss, explaining how he struggled with the recent anniversary of his mother’s death.

‘It’s 40 years this year since my mum was killed and it’s still just as raw 40 years later. There’s one thing I always think, because I was in tears on the anniversary this year, and that is don’t feel guilty about being happy,’ he shared.

‘When people are feeling grief they have a happy moment and feel guilty and they stop themselves. But whenever you have the chance to feel happy during grief grab it,’ he added, sitting back while visibly emotional.

After apologising for speaking, saying ‘that’s not what I’m here to do’, Ben reassured him and said the advice was pertinent.

Just three days before his 12^th birthday, Martin’s mother Susan Lewis was killed in an accident while she was horse riding.

In 2018 he opened up about the tragedy publicly for the first time.

‘I was told there had been an accident involving a lorry but no one told me how serious it was,’ he shared on Radio 5 Live.

‘I remember worrying that my mum wouldn’t be there for my birthday. The next day my dad told me that she died that morning and that was the end of my childhood, that moment.’

Martin said he cried every day until he was 15 when he developed anxiety that left him unable to leave the house for fear of another tragedy unfolding.

He continued: ‘My mum was there one day, and she wasn’t the next and that was it. I couldn’t cope with it…I was a little boy. I was a little boy struggling to deal with something that nobody should be dealing with at that age.’

In 2020 Martin said his ‘childhood ended that day’ his mother died and he was ‘still not over it’.

Over the years Martin has explained how the death of his mum was ‘the defining moment of my life’.

He also once said he was ‘deeply scarred’ decades later and the loss ‘changed the way’ he acted and behaved.