The death of popular celebrity Big Brother contestant and TV mystic, Derek Acorah, has been announced by his wife on Saturday. The 69-year-old and self-styled spiritual medium, whose real name is Derek Johnson was said to have died after a brief illness, UK Evening Standard reports.
According to the report, the wife of Derek Acorah, Gwen Acorah shared the news in a statement on his official Facebook page, adding that the psychic had been in intensive care after falling into a coma.
“Farewell my love! I will miss you forever! I’m devastated to announce that my beloved husband Derek has passed away after a very brief illness,” she wrote.
“Thank you so much to everybody who has supported me – I can never thank you enough.”
She suggested that her husband had been targeted by trolls before his death in the second part of her statement.
Born in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1950, Acorah featured in regular segments on 1996 TV show The Psychic Zone before becoming a contributor on spin-off show Psychic Livetime.
Derek Acorah got his big break on TV thanks to Psychic Livetime on satellite channel Granada Breeze, and then followed it up with his own series Predictions With Derek Acorah.
He then went to Living to feature in Most Haunted, where he was the guest medium for several series until he departed after six series in 2005 following claims of fakery.
The show’s resident parapsychologist Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe told The Mirror in late 2005 that he had set up Acorah by having other crew members feed him false information about spirits in various locations.
He appeared in series 20 of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5, where he came fourth.
Acorah was born in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1950.
He originally had aspirations to be a footballer, and was on the books of Liverpool FC but did not play a game.
He went on to play football in Australia but his career in the sport ended while he was in his late twenties due to a leg injury, the report added