Trinny Woodall recalls heartbreaking moment she told her 11-yr-old daughter that daddy had killed himself

'The hardest thing I've had to do in my entire life,' the make-up mogul told 'The Big Talk Show'

UPDATED OCT 26, 2022

Trinny Woodall and husband Johnny Elichaoff pictured at Home House, Portman Square on June 29, 2005, in London, England (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Trinny Woodall broke down in an Australian interview as she described the heartbreaking moment she had to reveal to her daughter Lyla that her father had died.

The makeup mogul and What Not to Wear star, 58, sat down with journalist Jessica Rowe for an episode of 'The Big Talk Show' during her visit to Australia to promote her skincare and makeup range Trinny London. She said she came up with the idea of stackable cream makeup products at the age of 50, around the same time her ex-husband Johnny Elichaoff fell to his death from a car park roof in 2014. He died at the age of 55 after battling an addiction to painkillers for over two decades.

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The fashion mogul remembered co-parenting Lyla with Johnny from her third to her sixth birthday, often leaving on a Sunday to work on her popular fashion show and returning Friday to spend the weekend with her daughter, who is now 18. Trinny said it was the only way the family would be able to financially provide for their child. "When I was 50 Lyla's father died under tragic circumstances. I had stopped doing TV. I didn't have an income. I was living off the residue of a couple of books," she said.

Presenter Trinny Woodall and husband Johnny Elichaoff attend the launch of "Dogs Trust", the new name for the National Canine Defence League, at the Royal Academy of Arts on January 22, 2004, in London. (Photo by Bruno Vincent/Getty Images)

The idea for Trinny London's makeup range became a reality during that period. "I remember I was at the funeral of my husband and afterwards I had people around my house and I had some very good friends and they said 'Trinny we know you want to start this idea but you need to be responsible for Lyla. Maybe you should get a job instead?'" she recalled. "I said to them I can't be 60 and wish I'd started it earlier. So they said send us the business plan when you're ready, and they were one of the first investors."

Trinny Woodall attends the opening night of 'Hamilton' at Victoria Palace Theatre on December 21, 2017 in London, England. — Trinny Woodall attends the opening night of 'Hamilton' at Victoria Palace Theatre on December 21, 2017, in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

Trinny met Johnny, a former musician, in the 1990s at a rehab clinic. She has been open about her struggles with cocaine and alcohol addiction in the past. "We met in recovery," she said. "He had a very bad motorcycle accident and he had taken painkillers... every year of our marriage he was in rehab dealing with that addiction." The pair were married for a decade before parting ways in 2009. "It's very hard to end a marriage when it's not like someone has gone off with somebody else. It's more of a sense of responsibility that you need to take ownership of the decision," she explained. "But we were good after that. We would speak every day and by that stage, I had met Charles [Saatchi] as well. Then stuff just started to go wrong for him and he took his own life."

Trinny Woodall and husband Johnny Elichaoff attend the annual Tatler Summer Party, hosted by Tatler editor Geordie Greig and also celebrating the publication of their — Trinny Woodall and her husband Johnny Elichaoff attend the annual Tatler Summer Party, hosted by Tatler editor Geordie Greig and also celebrating the publication of their "August 100 Most Invited" issue, at Home House, Portman Square on June 29, 2005, in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Trinny remembered the fateful day and became emotional as she recalled what it was like to break the devastating news who her daughter, who had just turned 11. "There's an amazing woman called Julia Samuel and she wrote a book called Grief Works and she actually worked with William and Harry when their mum died," she said. "She was just known to be that fantastic person and she happened to be a friend of my sister. And the day it happened, my sister said, I'm going to call her. Lila was at school and the police had come around and I just said, I don't know how to tell her. So Julia came around and then she said 'just say he had a heart attack in his head.'"

Trinny recalled, "So she came home from school and there'll be, oh, I always get upset about this. She came home from school and I took her upstairs and I told her. She let out this scream like an animal. And I remember I really hugged her, you know, when you have a child feeling pain, you really hug and I just sort of said to her these words Julia had told me and that was the hardest thing I've had to do in my entire life."

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Johnny was previously a drummer with the rock group Stark Naked and the Car Thieves, who were known for touring with U2 and Siouxsie Sioux during the 1980s. However, he eventually gave up life on the road to become a financial adviser. He subsequently appeared on Channel 4's 'Four Rooms' as an antiques dealer. Johnny and Trinny tied the not in Knightsbridge in 1999 at St Columba's church, where the latter was christened, her parents had married, and where her grandfather was buried, the Daily Mail reported.