‘Utterly heartbroken’ BBC’s Lauren Laverne quits Glastonbury gig after mum’s death

express.co.uk:

BBC presenter Lauren Laverne had to leave her presenting gig at Glastonbury Festival following the tragic news of her mother’s death.

Lauren, 44, told her Instagram followers that she had been left “heartbroken” by the news.This morning, Lauren told her 221,000 Instagram followers: “Yesterday I lost my Mam, Celia. “She was the kindest, most compassionate and most tenacious person I have ever met. “Born in the middle of nine kids, she was a master peacemaker and persuader. “She passed her 11+ and went to grammar school which changed our family’s direction forever."Lauren then went on to tell her mum’s inspiring life story as she paid tribute. “Met my Dad at 16 and loved him every day of her life,” Lauren continued. “She ran the only reggae club night in the NE and told me that being young in the 60s felt like that line in Mr Tambourine Man ‘to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free’. “She worked as a seamstress and a casino dancer (also making costumes for the troupe) to pay her way through college and became a wonderful teacher, eventually managing all Sunderland’s colleges.  “Somewhere along the line she had me and my brother and got political (she once chased someone from the BNP down our garden path with a rolling pin in one hand and me in the other arm), protested at Greenham Common and eventually became a city councillor. “She delighted in helping people, especially those who like her knew what it was like to grow up without. “She had watched so many decades of history documentaries that when we met historian Michael Wood they chatted away like colleagues. “She loved children and was the most devoted and adored mother and grandmother you could ever meet,” Lauren added.Lauren shares two sons named.