Anneka Rice has revealed she nearly suffocated her elderly father with a pillow in hospital when he was suffering with dementia.
The former Challenge Anneka and Treasure Hunt presenter said he was in his nineties when she considered murdering him “through love”.
Anneka’s dad developed Alzheimer’s in 2005. Her mother Penny started to show symptoms almost a decade later around the time of his funeral.
Anneka told Radio 4 Extra listeners how he was in hospital after being admitted with a broken hip.
She said on her Anneka Has Issues show: “He was dazed and confused and it broke my heart.
“I’d visit every day, a three-hour round trip, and I remember vividly looking at my dad, usually so dapper, and now so broken in that hospital bed.
‘And I looked and I looked, deep into my soul, and I looked at the pillow and I took one of his pillows. And I looked round the ward and I held the pillow up. And I wanted so much to help him on his way – as all our elderly parents say to us ‘please don’t let me linger in pain’.
“But when the time comes it’s almost impossible to do the deed. Murder I don’t think is naturally in our DNA.”
She added: “I told forensic anthropologist and general expert on death Dame Sue Black that I nearly murdered my dad.”
Dame Sue said: “The one thing that connects what you wanted to do, which sounds like such a vicious act to most, is that it was through love.”
Rice said: “It was through deep love.” She continued: “”A week after my dad died my mother developed the exact same symptoms.”
Anneka, 63, has spoken previously about her dad’s illness. She said: “Mostly he lived in a parallel universe, often a fictitious health club, and we would spend many happy hours debating whether to have the hot stone massage or just a snooze by the pool.”
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