Gail Porter has revealed she had a run-in with the police after she tried to scatter her father’s ashes at Portobello Beach.
The former Top Of The Pop host, 53, said goodbye to her father, Craig, in 2020 after he passed away aged 72 in Marbella.
After keeping her father’s ashes in an urn in her London spare room during lockdown, Gail admitted she became ‘stressed’ and desperately wanted to return him home to Scotland for his final resting place.
But when she finally reached the Edinburgh coastline, she was faced with a clash from the police when she ‘chucked’ his ashes into the sea.
Gail said: ‘I had my dad in a box and I got back to London with him a day before lockdown. I was so stressed.
‘I couldn’t even get him out because I was going to take him to Scotland but I couldn’t travel because we weren’t allowed to go anywhere.
Gail Porter has revealed that she had a run-in with the police when she was finally able to scatter her father’s ashes at Portobello beach (pictured in October 2024)
The former Top Of The Pops host said goodbye to her father, Craig, (pictured in 2001) in 2020 after he passed away aged 72 in Marbella, where he was living as an expat
‘So I just put him in the spare room eventually because I had enough. I was like, get in the spare room, man. This is just mental.’
‘He’s now in the sea somewhere. I chucked him. As soon as the lockdown came, we took him up and took him down to Portobello Beach and I was chucking him in the sea with my cousins and stuff’, she added.
‘And the police were like going, ”Gail Porter?” and I went, ”No”. And they went, ”We know it’s you.” And I was like, ”Yeah.” And they went, ”Have you just put ashes in the sea?” And I went, ”No” ‘Well, we just saw you. You’ve got to ask permission.’
‘I went, ”No, you don’t”. Apparently, you’ve got to ask permission. And I was like, ”well, I’m not going to in to fish him out. You can do it.” They did not prosecute me at all.’
The TV personality was seemingly right to correct the police with their claim, as the UK government’s website states: ‘You don’t need a licence or permission to scatter ashes at sea after a cremation’.
Gail chose Portobello Beach as his resting place as she has been frequenting the beach since she was a little girl and she grew up in the area.
She has many childhood memories at the seaside as she would spend her summers building sandcastles with her brother.
Little is known about how her father passed away and she first revealed the sad news following the release of her ‘tough’ mental health documentary for the BBC.
After keeping his ashes in an urn in her London spare room during lockdown, she became ‘stressed’ and wanted to return him home for his final resting place (pictured in August 2024)
Being Gail Porter, which aired in January 2020. explored her rise to fame and her fall into depression and homelessness and was repeated five months later.
Gail tweeted in May: ‘Since that documentary, my father passed away, I had him in his wee cremated box by me while I watched. Hard but he had a great life xxx.’
Gail assured her fans she was feeling OK despite what she was going through and wrote: ‘And I’m totally fine. Just appreciating kindness. And sending love to all.’
She also penned: ‘Thank you for always tweeting and being lovely. Kindness is all we need.’
It had previously been reported that Gail’s father told her that he believes she developed mental health problems because she ‘moved to London’ from Scotland.
Gail had said she was ‘all good’ despite how emotional her evening was
She has lived with the mental health conditions post-natal depression and bipolar disorder and she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2011.
Back in January 2020, when the documentary was first shown, Gail told Lorraine Kelly that filming and watching it back had been ‘tricky’.
The documentary also explores the backlash Gail received after her naked image was famously projected onto the House of Commons in 1999 as part of an FHM campaign.
