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Emmerdale star Danny Miller bonded with Ed Balls in an emotional Good Morning Britain interview about their parents’ respective dementia diagnoses.
In May 2025, soap star Miller – who has played Aaron Dingle in the long-running ITV drama since 2008 – first shared that his 91-year-old father Vince had been diagnosed with the degenerative condition. Dementia impacts the memory and is associated with an ongoing decline of brain functioning.
The former I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! winner, 35, was a guest on Good Morning Britain on Monday (23 March), when he spoke about Vince’s current condition and the impact it is having on the family.
“Unfortunately, it’s one of those illnesses, diseases, that affects everyone in the family,” he said. “It's sad. Me and my dad were thick as thieves at one point, and losing him over and over again is awful.”
Host Ed Balls, whose own mother Carolyn suffers from dementia, reiterated how important it was to “find the positive” even when their parents might no longer recognise them.
“That will break my heart. I’m not there yet, we’re not there yet,” said Miller, to which Balls, 59, replied: “I think we’ve been there for seven years. Sometimes she won’t speak at all, but I think you still believe that deep within her… even when they’re not speaking, they’re still recognising and reacting.”
Miller replied: “It’s tough because he was always, ‘This is my son, Danny from Emmerdale.’ It was never, ‘This is my son, Danny,’ because he was so proud of me.’”
“He is still proud of you,” Balls said, to which Miller responded: “Yeah, I know. I struggle to have the same relationship, and I feel selfish for that.”
However, Ball told him that he needed to try to resist that feeling, saying: “You’re just doing your best, your best for him as he is now. “
Elsewhere in the interview, Miller explained that he’d had to move further away from his dad for his own family. “I live a couple of hours drive from my dad now, which breaks my heart. But I have my own family, I’ve got a job up in Yorkshire [on] Emmerdale,” he said.
“Being around in Manchester isn’t easy anymore, so I moved my family up there. It was a really tough thing to do because I am not there for my dad as much as I would like to be. I miss him terribly.”
In addition to being a compere comedian, Vince was also a singer, with Miller explaining that he could connect with his father through the music of the late British musician Matt Monro.
“I played it one day and he pointed at it and said, ‘10 December 1970-whatever.’ And I went and I googled it and he was right," Miller recalled, explaining that if he repeated this when he saw Vince he would “tend to get a better visit”.
Miller said that he wanted to encourage people to get tested if they were worried about their memory or dementia. “It’s something that I want to fly the flag for because I don't want dementia to destroy families as it’s destroyed ours,” he said.
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