Robert Rinder has said his grandfather died of coronavirus on Wednesday night, aged 92.
Appearing on This Morning via video call, he said: “He survived the Second World War and he was a man that was determined and conspired to see joy in the world.
“As much as there is terrible and appalling news out there, we also as a community, as neighbours, as a country, need to remember that there are thousands of people who are recovering from this disease every single day, that our police are doing their very best, our frontline workers are too – and that we, as a nation, are responding positively.
"Whenever I saw him, which was often as I loved him very much, he would always say, 'What good news is there, son?' And that's something that generation reminds us all of. It's been a challenging time, but I remember him in that positive way."
Visibly emotional and with his voice wavering, Rinder told This Morning hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford that he was trying to retain that optimistic mindset while in isolation.
"Perhaps when we get up in the morning, depressed, overwhelmed perhaps with anxiety and distress, that it's worth remembering," he said. "We can choose to drown ourselves in the negativity and the horror, or we can choose to galvanise ourselves to be at our very best, and that's the way I choose to remember [my grandfather]."
The news comes after Rinder himself revealed he had also suffered from Covid-19.
Explaining his ordeal in his Evening Standard column, the 41-year-old wrote: "It started two weeks ago when I woke up with a temperature, which I never get.
"This was followed by a dry hacking cough, night sweats and — by day six — my lungs felt like they were being squeezed in a vice. I forced myself out of bed to eat and then collapsed into delirium on the sofa, trying to avoid the catastrophic news by watching endless reality television.
“By day seven I felt a bit better, only to relapse with a fever the following morning. By day 11 my temperature was down, the cough had begun to subside and I could do small tasks. I am on the road to recovery but still feel ropey," he wrote.
Currently, the UK has over 33,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 2921 people having died from the disease
