Ranvir Singh opened up about a personal tragedy she experienced at a young age which has left her forever dreading New Year's.
The presenter, 46, made the admission while co-hosting Friday's episode of Good Morning Britain alongside Richard Madeley, 67.
During a segment on the ITV show's annual 1 Million Minutes campaign, which aims to encourage viewers to pledge their time to charities that tackle the issues of loneliness, a video was shown of widow Ali, who volunteers for charity Grief Encounter, which supports families during the toughest time of their lives.
Ali had lost her husband and was left a single mum to their children. "It's the worst experience that can happen to anyone," she told viewers as she explained that she wanted to help others in the way the charity had helped her.
"The real definition of empathy," Madeley commented afterwards.
Agreeing, Singh said that the clip had resonated with her, explaining: "I wish Grief Encounter had been around for me when I was nine because my dad died when he was 42. I had a really similar story to Ali's actually and it makes me really grateful that Ali's there doing volunteering for other families and she was supported by Grief Encounter because I never had any of that."
Asked by Madeley if it was a "sudden death", she replied: "He had a heart attack. He was 42 years old and I was nine years old. Given that we're heading into New Year's Eve, it took me until about four or five years ago to understand why I absolutely have always hated New Year's Eve because my dad died on January 21st but I never understood why I had a sense of foreboding about this 'greatest night of the year'.
"As I said to you, I'd much rather be in bed but now I understand why I don't like this time of year - it's because just around the corner was something terrible and every year since the age of nine I felt this weird sense of dread.""Did he die at home?" Madeley probed further, to which Singh responded: "No, no. But what I'm saying is that it's fantastic what Grief Encounter do and it's a lovely thing that Ali does."
