Dr Michael Mosley’s wife has spoken of the harrowing search for her husband, which ended with the discovery of his body in the remote outback of a small Greek island.
The TV doctor, 67, renowned for his work on reversing type 2 diabetes, died of suspected heat stroke on June 5 last year after going missing on the island of Symi. His body was found four days later, just 100ft from a spot near a marina where his children had already searched.
In her first major interview since his death, Dr Clare Bailey, 63 — herself a retired GP — told the Daily Mail of the torrent of emotions she experienced during the agonising wait.
Clare recounted the moment she was told a body had been found while staying at a friend's villa. “They’ve found him,” someone said down the line.
“And that was it," she said. "We put our arms round each other and there were hugs and tears. And after that, we all slumped. I could make no sense of anything.”
The couple’s daughter Kate, a law graduate, handled the repatriation of Dr Mosley’s body. An inquest in December concluded his death was “indeterminate” and “unascertainable”, though most likely due to heatstroke or an undetected medical cause.
Clare described her husband as a “maverick” and “risk-taker” who “loved exploring”. She added: “His death was in keeping with his life.”
Dr Mosley, a familiar face on BBC programmes since 1985 and a regular on The One Show, was also a prolific health columnist. His most celebrated work was his research on type 2 diabetes, captured in his best-selling book The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet, after reversing the condition himself.
The couple had arrived on Symi the day before his death and were staying with friends. Clare recalled a normal farewell before he left for an afternoon walk — “probably wasn’t even a kiss”.
As the hours passed and he didn’t return, she raised the alarm, only to be told by police that nothing could be done within the first 48 hours — despite 40C heat.
Growing increasingly concerned, she informed their children — Alex, 34, Jack, 33, Dan, 30, and Kate, 26 — who quickly made arrangements to fly out.
Clare began searching herself, calling his name along the coast as daylight faded.
“I spent a couple of hours walking along the coast and through trees and gorse calling his name. Every time I met someone I asked, ‘Have you seen him?’
“Then it got dark. It became devastatingly obvious something had gone terribly wrong.”
Emergency services launched a large-scale search across the island.
“I just curled up in bed and cried,” Clare said of that first night.
She struggled to eat, saying “everything tasted dry” and she could only manage food when smothered in mayonnaise. The arrival of her children brought some comfort.
“There was this extraordinarily close, intimate sharing of agony, of tears and laughter – because they are closely aligned – and it was as if we were in a capsule, surrounded by a kind of magical cordon that gave us a sense of safety in impossible circumstances.”
At one point, the family even clung to rumours that Dr Mosley had been kidnapped as “a thread of hope”.
But on Sunday, June 9, his body was discovered by the island’s mayor while out with a British TV crew. He had collapsed several hundred yards from the beach bar at Agia Marina, possibly after missing a turn and falling on a rocky path.
Clare said she was deeply upset by images of his arm visible from the stretcher and seeing his name on the coffin for the first time.
Back at their family home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, she finds comfort in the memories of their 25 years there — surrounded by photos, books, and mementoes of their life together.
The couple met at university in 1980 and married seven years later. Clare not only edited his books but also contributed all of the recipes.
Reflecting on the tragedy, she said: “It is a tragic story, played out in the public eye, but it is a simple one. It could have been much more complicated. We might never have found Michael and we would have had no closure.
“But I had the children and wonderful friends with me, and most of all I feel very lucky to have had my life with Michael.“We loved each other very much and had the most amazing time together.”
