'It broke my heart': Anneka Rice reveals how she took a pillow and almost MURDERED her dad 'out of love'
LONDON, UK: Television presenter and broadcaster Anneka Rice recently revealed that her father suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Watching him suffer was a hard thing to do for her, so one time she almost killed her father with a pillow. During her radio show, she explained how things got tough and she could not watch her dad go through the struggle, and also revealed how her mother was also headed toward the same fate.
On 'Anneka Has Issues', a talk show on Radio 4 Extra, the 63-year-old broadcaster took her listeners by surprise when she shared her struggle. Rice, talking about her father, said, "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." Rice continued talking about her father's battle with mental illness and how she wanted to finish it all. She said, "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." Only a day ago, Rice shared a picture of her father with Valerie Singleton, a television presenter.
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Anneka Rice's father's battle with Alzheimer's
Anneka Rice has lost both of her parents to dementia. In February 2022, Rice told Alzheimer's Research UK, "When my father started to develop dementia, he retained his sweet and gentle nature, but the impact of the condition on him was terrifying. I asked him once, ‘Dad, what’s my name?’. He looked at me tenderly and said ‘Dulux’, and inexplicably, this brought me comfort." Rice continued talking to her listeners on Radio 4 Extra saying, "I told forensic anthropologist and general expert on death Dame Sue Black that I nearly murdered my dad." Sue, who was a guest on the show, replied, "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 added, "It was through deep love. A week after my dad died my mother developed the exact same symptoms."
Talking to Marie Curie back in 2019, Rice remembered her father and the things he would say. When asked what helped her in opening up more about grief, she revealed that she has lost a few friends which makes her qualified to talk about 'loss'. She said, "When he was 90, my father used to say 'I wouldn’t mind going next Tuesday' which I’d have put on his gravestone if we hadn’t scattered his ashes. His other saying, especially to his grandchildren when they asked him how he was, was 'above ground and breathing'. He said this from about the age of 75 and the children found it hilarious. When we scattered his ashes we tracked down a tor called Laughter Tor on Dartmoor and threw the ashes into the air. It was rather windy that day. They got caught in our hair, our jackets, they flew away, it was actually joyful and we were weak with laughter and adrenalin. None of us will ever forget it as it summed up my father’s eccentricity and humour. He’d have loved it."