The couple had been together for decades.
BBC comedy star Dermot O’Neill is mourning the death of his wife Patricia (Image: WENN/Almay)
Actor Dermot O’Neill, 67, best known for playing Grandad in the BBC sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys has been left devastated by the death of his wife of 14-years Patricia, known affectionately as Chickie, at the age of 60. The star confirmed she died in St Francis Hospice Blanchardstown in Dublin in the early hours of the morning on Monday June 1 just months after receiving a cancer diagnosis. She was given mere months to live when doctors found several tumours in her stomach.
“Chickie left us about half three in the morning. We are absolutely devastated. I am going to miss her so much,” he told The Irish Sun. Patricia had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in January after she went to hospital in Spain to have a hernia removed. She was left in shock as surgeons were unable to operate when they found several tumours in her stomach.
At the time she confessed she was “choking” when they shared her tragic prognosis. “Dermot has been amazing. He’s old school – a real man’s man. Being 14 years younger than him, he never believed he would see me being sick.
“When the doctor told me it was stage four cancer, he said I had months to live, rather than years. I was choking when I got the news. They can’t reverse the cancer, only prolong my life,” she said.
In an interview with The Irish Sun she revealed she had been offered a spot at a Spanish hospital but decided to “come back to Ireland” as she worried she would “never see [her] kids again” if she didn’t.
She had been undergoing chemotherapy at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital for the past several months.
Mrs Brown’s Boys star Dermot O’Neill has said he is devastated following his wife’s death (Image: Getty)
The couple were together for 20 years before they eventaully tied the knot in 2012 with Patricia revealing Dermot proposed via text message while he was away on tour with the stage version of Mrs Brown’s Boys. They have seven children between them from previous relationships before they met.
In an ironic twist Patricia had nursed Dermot through his own cancer battle in 2019.
Dermot played Harold Brown, the father-in-law to the main character, Agnes Brown, played by Brendan O’Carroll in the long running BBC sitcom.
His character was often teased by his daughter-in-law, who was unhappy to be looking after him after the death of her husband
