Dr Michael Mosley’s widow has revealed the final moments before his death.
The TV doctor and nutritionist, 67, was found dead on the Greek island of Symi after a four-day rescue operation last summer.
In her first interview since her husband’s death, Dr Clare Bailey Mosley has now recounted the events of the tragic holiday from which the 67-year-old never returned.
The couple arrived in Symi for the week-long trip with friends on 4 June 2024.
She told MailOnline: “We’d only been there for half a day before it happened.”
She said they were relaxing on the beach and enjoying the occasional dip in the sea and a coffee.
“Typically, Michael got bored,” she added. “He wasn’t enjoying his book and he doesn’t really like lying on beaches, so he said: ‘I’m going exploring. I’m off for a walk.’ He agreed to meet us back at our friends’ villa.
“I gave him my litre bottle of water and in his rather eccentric way, he had an umbrella to shield him from the sun. It was 1.30pm and he was given instructions on where to walk.
“He set off at a good pace, his rucksack on his back, up a steep hill. He hadn’t brought his phone because he didn’t want to risk it getting wet on the boat.”
Dr Bailey Mosley went back to the villa with their friends after enjoying an afternoon at the beach, but started to get concerned where her husband had gone.
She told the publication: “Feeling things weren’t right, we went to the police station and reported him missing. The police said: ‘We can’t do anything about it until he’s been gone for 48 hours.’ I said: ‘What, in this heat?’ It was 40 degrees, the hottest day for decades.”
After she pushed them hard they agreed to send out a local search and rescue team.
Dr Bailey Mosley then got in touch with the British consulate in Athens and also put an appeal out on the Symi social media page.
She said: “And it suddenly went ‘whoosh’ and local people turned out in force to search.”
She said she also went out to look for her husband herself, adding: “I spent a couple of hours walking along the coast and through trees and gorse calling his name. Every time I met someone, I asked: ‘Have you seen him?’
“Then it got dark. It became devastatingly obvious something had gone terribly wrong.”
Dr Bailey Mosley said she spent the first night curled up in bed crying. Then she was up before dawn and searching for her husband again.
They feared he’d collapsed and fallen over something, and kept looking. But they found nothing.
The Mosley children arrived that evening and later joined the search.
Dr Bailey Mosley said: “Extra plates were laid at the table – our friends were just so calm and supportive. They held us all together.
“There was this extraordinarily close, intimate sharing of agony, of tears and laughter – because they are closely aligned – and it was as if we were in a capsule, surrounded by a kind of magical cordon that gave us a sense of safety in impossible circumstances.”
Outlandish stories about what might have happened to her husband began circulating at that time, such as a suggestion he had been abducted, and a similar-looking man spotted on CCTV.
She said: “I was naively optimistic. I think I was in denial. I remember sitting on the balcony watching the helicopters go round and round and still thinking: ‘One of them will find him.’”
Then, four days after Dr Mosley had gone missing, his body was found.
The island’s mayor and a British TV crew were out in a boat on 9 June when they spotted him just a few hundred metres from the beach bar at Agia Marina.
Later, it emerged that Dr Mosley had missed his turn-off and fallen down the rocky mountain path, dying just two hours after leaving his wife at St Nicholas beach.
Dr Mosley was known for popularising the 5:2 diet, a form of intermittent fasting, through his book The Fast Diet, as well as his documentaries on the BBC.
His family has since set up a health research project to honour his memory.
A new clinical research fellowship will be established in partnership with King’s College London and the Chronic Disease Research Foundation (CDRF) to help improve the nation’s metabolic health.
Dr Bailey Mosley said: “Michael was most proud of the work that he did in helping people to improve their metabolic health.
“It is increasingly clear that improving metabolic health decreases your risk of multiple chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, reducing blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer and more.
“The Mosley family are thrilled that this fellowship will continue in his name to improve so many people’s lives.”
The Michael Mosley Fund JustGiving page can be found here.
