Bradley Walsh breaks down in tears live on This Morning over social distancing

Bradley Walsh broke down in tears on This Morning as the team discussed families separated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Chase presenter Bradley Walsh appeared on ITV’s This Morning yesterday and was pushed to tears after hearing the story of a mother and son who were separated due to coronavirus guidelines.

Bradley Walsh joined This Morning presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby over a video call to discuss people in care homes who are not able to see their loved ones due to the pandemic.

In a pre-recorded message, a mum appeared to talk about how she has not been able to see her son who is suffering from Huntington's disease for the last six months as he has been a care home.

"My whole body demands that I am there to care for my son and I’m not there and it’s like grieving upon grieving, I can’t be there, I can’t love and help my son," said mum Ruth. "I feel very helpless, useless, sad and this has been six months of feeling like this."

"The pain – I even had to go to the doctor because I thought I was going to have a mental breakdown," added Ruth. "He gave me anti-depressants – I don’t need anti-depressants, I need to be with my son."

Bradley then chimed in to speak about how Ruth reached out to him through an Instagram message, which was initially picked up by his wife Donna.

"I never realised, this is an age thing for me, that you could get messages via Instagram, I really didn't, I didn't know that existed,” he said. "Donna saw this and said, 'Brad, have you seen this message that you've got?' and straight away I thought, wow, if it was my mum, or my son Barney for instance, I'd be absolutely devastated. I had to get in touch and had to do something.

"I've never met Ruth by the way, and Sam, and that's heartbreaking,” he went on. “Since then I've got on board and thought, what can be done?

"In Ruth's case specifically, seven months having daily contact with Sam and now having none, he's in the later stages of Huntington's disease and it's so sad."

"It's hard enough to see your... it's hard, sorry,” he joked up, before tearfully continuing, "It's hard enough to see your parents go but if you child is going to go before you, something needs to be done.

"I apologise, sorry about that. It's so upsetting. I had no idea this was going on, I promise you."