Dame Esther Rantzen reveals how long she has left to live
Dame Esther Rantzen's daughter Rebecca joined the Loose Women today and broke down in tears when discussing her mother's decision to sign up for assisted suicide and how she was coping. Rebecca and the Loose Women panel watched an emotional video montage of Esther, admitting her diagnosis is the news "no one wants to hear".
Speaking about her mother's decision, Rebecca said that she was "a little surprised" but she has "chosen how she wants to live".
She told Kaye Adams, Kelly Holmes, Sue Cleaver and Gloria Hunniford: "It's the news that no one ever wants to hear.
"Mum doesn't usually break her promises and she promised to live forever so she's quite embarrassed that she's had to go back on that.
"But how does anyone ever feel when a loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness? It's confusing, it's bamboozling.
"They use all these words, you just want them to tell you what's going to happen and when, really directly and really succinctly and nobody does, because they pad around it carefully and you just want them to say, ''This is what you have and this is how long it'll take'.
'You just want someone to say this is what you have and this is how long it will take but they can't."
Dame Esther Rantzen recorded an exclusive video for Loose Women, which was played during Rebecca's interview.
She opened up and said: "I don't know if I'll live long enough to see this debated in parliament but if you do agree with me, please, please make your views known to your MP and for those that disagree.
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"Maybe on religious principles or maybe because they're professionally absorbed in palliative care and believe that this goes against what they practise in medicine - can I just say, all we ask for is the choice.
"That's all we're asking for, we don't want to impose our views on you but we do want the choice ourselves."
Rebecca agreed with her mother about wanting to spark a debate on the topic and added: "The fact that she isn't allowed to choose how she dies, doesn't make any sense to any of us.
"She's chosen how she wants to live and she's been a bit of a force of nature in that sense so it makes sense in a way that this is the debate that's coming to the forefront of our family.
"She's watching now, which is making me really nervous because I feel like I'm putting words in her mouth and you should never do that with Mum!"
Loose Women airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and ITVX.
