Dame’s niece Tottie Goldsmith gave an emotional interview about her aunt’s ‘painful’ final days as she confirmed that the family would be accepting the offer of a state funeral.
on Monday at the age of 73 devastated her friends and fans from around the world, with and celebrity pals Sir Rod Stewart and Kylie Minogue , alongside for her mum and ‘best friend’.
Although the cause of ’s death has not yet been officially confirmed, Dame Olivia had fought three separate bouts of breast since 1992, with the disease returning in 2017 and spreading to the singer’s bones.
Tottie, whose mother Rona was Dame Olivia’s sister, has now revealed that her aunt’s death had been anticipated by the family, as she deteriorated over the past week.
‘It’s not a shock, we’ve known how sick she’s been, especially the last five days,’ she told host Tracy Grimshaw on .
Explaining that had kept everyone ‘in the loop’, Tottie shared that she had been able to tell her aunt ‘all the things I needed to say’.
‘I couldn’t get to America in time and I wanted to say goodbye, so I asked him if he could hold the phone up to her ear, but he got me on Facetime so I managed to see her.
‘I told her all the things I needed to say. She was leaving us… but I could feel like she got it.’
A singer herself in 90s pop group Chantoozies, Tottie also explained that Dame Olivia’s health had left her ‘susceptible’ to other illnesses in her final few days.
‘It wasn’t just the cancer that got her, it was other complications, being in a hospital and with a very susceptible immune system. She got secondary infections.’
The 59-year-old added that she ‘really went down in the past five, six days’ and ‘really struggled with a lot of pain’ as cannabinoids, for which she was an advocate, were not ‘enough’ to help her in the later stages of her life.
During the interview, Tottie seemingly also confirmed the reports that Daniel Andrews, the Premier of Victoria, had offered the family a state funeral for Dame Olivia, in order to celebrate her ‘lasting legacy’.
The actress was born in England, but her family emigrated to Australia when she was just six years old.
Fighting back tears, Tottie said the family would accept the offer of a state funeral, after Tracy asked her about it, ‘on behalf of not just our family’ but also Australia.
‘She’s so loved, and I think our country needs it so we’re going to accept it,’ she stated.
