Dr Michael Mosley’s spouse pays tribute to ‘fantastic’ husband

Dr Michael Mosley’s wife has paid an emotional tribute to her ‘wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant’ husband after his body was found on the Greek island of Symi. 

Greek police today confirmed they had found the Mail columnist’s body following a treacherous five-day search in the searing heat. 

Dr Mosley’s wife Clare Bailey, who shares four children with the TV doctor, said: ‘I don’t know quite where to begin with this. It’s devastating to have lost Michael, my wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant husband. 

‘We had an incredibly lucky life together. We loved each other very much and were so happy together. I am incredibly proud of our children, their resilience and support over the past days.

‘My family and I have been hugely comforted by the outpouring of love from people from around the world. It’s clear that Michael meant a huge amount to so many of you.

‘We’re taking comfort in the fact that he so very nearly made it. He did an incredible climb, took the wrong route and collapsed where he couldn’t be easily seen by the extensive search team.

‘Michael was an adventurous man, it’s part of what made him so special. We are so grateful to the extraordinary people on Symi who have worked tirelessly to help find him. 

‘Some of these people on the island, who hadn’t even heard of Michael, worked from dawn till dusk unasked. We’re also very grateful to The Press who have dealt with us with great respect.’ 

Dr Bailey, who was married to the TV doctor for nearly 40 years, added: ‘I feel so lucky to have our children and my amazing friends. Most of all, I feel so lucky to have had this life with Michael. Thank you all x.’ 

Dr Mosley’s body was discovered in a rocky area beside Agia Marina today after an extensive search operation led by emergency workers, around 30 minutes walk from the village of Pedi where Dr Mosley was last seen.

The doctor was with friends at Agios Nikolaos beach on Wednesday before going alone for a walk to the centre of the island.

Petros Vassilakis, a senior police official, confirmed ‘it’s him’, while sources said the father was identified by his personal items and clothes.

Ted Verity, Editor of Mail Newspapers, said: ‘Everyone at the Mail is absolutely devastated to hear of the death of Dr Michael Mosley.

‘Michael wasn’t just a unique and unmissable columnist. He was part of the Mail family.

‘Since he first wrote for us in 2011, we have published hundreds of his weekly columns and serialised many of his best-selling books – from the ground-breaking fast diets to others on gut health and sleep.

‘It’s no exaggeration to say that over the years Michael’s insights – especially his revelation that you CAN reverse type two diabetes – will have extended, and even saved, the lives of countless readers.

‘In person, whether warning of the perils of skimmed milk or enthusing about his latest madcap experiment on his own body, Michael was as electrifying as he was in print and on TV.

‘What shone through was his irrepressible curiosity – he was always hungry to learn about the very latest, cutting-edge science and medicine and then explain it to readers in a way that was both engaging and comprehensible to a mainstream audience.

‘Michael was also extremely kind, not hesitating to be one of the first to offer his home as sanctuary to a Ukrainian family.

‘And he always spoke with enormous love and warmth of his wife Clare, his co-author on many projects, and four children Alexander, Jack, Daniel and Katherine.

‘Our hearts go out to them all.’

Police arrived at Agia Marina around 20 minutes after the body was discovered lying face up about 90 metres from the coastline. At around 2.09pm local time, firefighters arrived at the marina by boat and carried an orange stretcher and large black bag to where the body was found.

Other people wearing plain clothes got off the white speed boat and took briefcases up the rocky hill.

After around half an hour a party of six firefighters carefully gathered Dr Mosley’s body and placed it onto the orange stretcher.

It was then taken down to a jetty and loaded onto a small white tender and taken away to a mortuary on the island of Rhodes for a postmortem.

Two forensic officers remained at the scene examining the area where the body was found and the refused to comment as they left.

It earlier emerged that Dr Mosley’s grown-up children Alex, Jack, Dan and Kate were just 350ft away from where the body was found when they retraced their father’s steps yesterday.

It appeared the Mail columnist had walked around the perimeter of the beach bar at Agia Marina and was heading towards the sea.

Temperatures at the time were around 37c and though he had a bottle of water with him the heat would have made it incredibly difficult.

It appeared that he may have been trying to reach the sea as his body was just a few feet from the shore. A source said the distinctive umbrella he had been carrying at the time was close to him.

At the time of his disappearance there was an excessive heat warning from the Greek Meteorological office, with temperatures predicted to hit a blistering 38c – unusual for early June.

Police looking for Dr Mosley are investigating the discovery of a body close to an area known as The Abyss.

The body was found by a waiter at a nearby beach bar after being alerted by the mayor who spotted something ‘unusual’ from the seat. The body was found at Agia Marina around 30 minutes walk from Pedi where he was last seen.

Waiter Ilias Tsavaris said he had been sent up to have a look following the mayor’s alert when he saw the ‘glint from a watch’ and a body.  

On Saturday a Greek fire brigade helicopter hovered overhead the spot where the body was found.

Police arrived around 20 minutes after it had been discovered – around 100 metres from the shoreline.

A short while later a coastguard boat arrived and anchored just off the beach while a small tender with more officers to the scene.

Mayor Eleftherios Papakaloudoukas had accompanied media to Agia Marina but was on his way back to Pedi when he looked back and saw something unusual on the rocks.

He then called the beach restaurant and alerted staff who rushed over towards what he had seen with a group of British journalists who had remained behind.

Officials said the coroner had been informed and was travelling to Symi from Rhodes. 

The waiter who found the body, Mr Tsavaris, said: ‘The mayor had been here to give interviews to the media and then left on a boat to return to Pedi.

‘From the sea he saw something unusual and then he called the restaurant and asked them to check it out.

‘I was sent up there and as I turned the fence to go up I saw a glint from a watch and I then I saw the body at the same time.’ 

On Saturday MailOnline was at the Agia Marina and watched as the fire brigade helicopter swooped low over the area where the body was but didn’t spot it.

In another bizarre twist a police officer at the scene suffered a suspected broken leg as he jumped from a wall close to the body and had to be carried away on a stretcher.

A major operation was launched to find the doctor after he vanished while hiking alone in blistering 36C (97F) heat on Wednesday.

His wife Dr Clare Bailey, 62, raised the alarm when he failed to return home by 7.30pm and local authorities began tracing his route overnight. 

Dr Mosley, 67, was one of Britain’s best known medics, whose revolutionary diet advice made him beloved by millions of Daily Mail readers and TV viewers.

Known for his open nature and effervescent personality, he achieved worldwide renown for popularising the 5:2 diet and released a string of best-selling books.  

Police first filed a missing person report for Dr Mosley at 10.30am on Thursday and by midday each of the emergency services in Greece had joined the search on the tiny island of Symi. 

The medic was seen leaving Saint Nicholas beach towards the town of Pedi, via a rocky path with steep sections.

CCTV footage showed him passing a café in the town, northeast of the holiday island of Symi.

Police believed Dr Mosley was likely hiking towards the town of Symi, due west of Pedi, but took a wrong turn and ended up on a ‘dangerous’ mountain path heading north.

The coastguard scoured the sea as the fire brigade searched the remote island’s forests and hills – with volunteers also assisting with the effort.

On Saturday, Dr Mosley’s four children arrived on the island to join the searches.

Mosley’s wife, Dr ClareBailey, had been searching the island joined by her British friends.

Earlier, investigators had questioned restaurant owners and shopkeepers ok the picturesque fishing village and examined CCTV footage.

Hopes were raised after a man matching his description and wearing the same clothes was spotted walking along the waterside at around 4.30pm on Wednesday with a woman.

Police and Dr Bailey rushed to the Katsaras restaurant to look at the footage and despite the amazing similarity it was ruled out after she said it was not her husband.

Dr Mosley and his wife landed on the 25-square-mile island on Tuesday and were due to stay for a week with a couple who have a house in Symi Town.

The two couples took a boat up the coast on Wednesday morning. They stopped at Saint Nicholas beach where the diet doctor, a father of four, went for a swim in the sea before deciding to walk the 2.2 miles back home at 1.30pm.

He had left his phone at their friends’ home, and when Dr Bailey and the couple returned to the property, they found that Dr Mosley had not returned and his mobile was where he left it.

After the alarm was raised, a woman reported seeing Dr Mosley walking past a bus stop in Pedi, halfway between Saint Nicholas beach and Symi Town. There were also claims he was seen talking to someone.

Symi mayor Lefteris Papakalodoukas said the area where the presenter went missing was considered ‘difficult as it is quite rocky’.

‘He came back from the beach, some people saw him but then his tracks were lost,’ he said, adding that Dr Mosley ‘wanted to walk back from the beach, but that’s a distance of about an hour and a half and there are shortcuts he may have taken’.

Mr Papakalodoukas added: ‘The British broadcaster has come for holiday with his wife and is being hosted by a couple of their friends on our island. We know he had gone for a swim… but because he likes hiking and the area, he (decided he) would walk back.

‘Some witnesses said he was seen returning to Pedi and talking to another person. All of these are testimonies that are being investigated at the moment.’

Mr Papakalodoukas told the local paper, Kathimerini, that the high temperatures on the island on Wednesday were ‘unbearable’ and that ‘one could easily faint in such conditions’. An excessive heat warning was issued by the Greek meteorological service on the day Mr Mosley went missing.

Born in Calcutta, India, Dr Mosley attended boarding school in England before reading PPE at Oxford. He tried his hand at investment banking but retrained as a doctor before joining the BBC as an assistant trainee producer. 

He married Clare Bailey in 1987, after meeting in medical school, and they had four children together. 

Dr Mosley made a string of science and history documentaries over 25 years, rising to become a presenter and an executive producer at the corporation.

In his journalistic career he has worked alongside the likes of John Cleese, Jeremy Clarkson, Professor Robert Winston and Sir David Attenborough.

His career on screen was spent challenging stale ideas, bringing his talents of wit, gusto and lateral thinking to testing theories – often on himself.   

His sense of adventure and unquenchable scientific curiosity sometimes led him to put himself in danger by accident, although – as yet – there is no way of knowing if this irrepressible side to his character contributed in any way to his disappearance.

On one previous holiday, he ended up in hospital with total memory loss, thanks to a fascination with the health benefits of extreme cold. After interviewing the Dutch guru Wim Hof, who advocates immersing the body in ice-cold water, he decided to test the theory on himself.

At first he began turning the tap to ‘cold’ in his shower and enduring the blast for 40 seconds.

Then, after researching the science more deeply, he began to experiment with volunteers — testing the different pain thresholds of subjects by asking them to plunge their hands into ice buckets, for example.

As with all his research, he never asked anyone to attempt a trial that he had not done himself.

Then disaster struck. On a family holiday to Cornwall in 2021, he went out on a boat with his wife, Dr Clare Bailey — also a Daily Mail columnist — and decided to swim back to shore. The chilly Atlantic waters sent his nervous system into shock.

‘I thought, I’m going to beat Clare back to shore,’ he recalled last year. ‘The next thing I know, I’m in casualty. Apparently I’ve swum back, Clare has caught up, but I was looking really vacant and I clearly had no idea who she is or who I am or where I am. Though I kept on repeating: ‘I have a wife and four children.’

‘I got a thorough examination and the consultant said: ‘You have something called transient global amnesia, which is relatively rare — but it’s brought on by swimming in cold water.’

‘It’s caused by a change in blood pressure and blood flow to the brain. My memory banks were entirely wiped for about two or three hours and then gradually came back.’

Despite this, he continued to experiment with ice-cold showers. 

Dr Mosley is perhaps best known for promoting the 5:2 theory — the radical idea that, by fasting on two days a week, it was possible to eat normally on the other five (and even indulge in sugary, fatty treats) and lose weight in dramatic style.

Forced into starvation mode, the body starts burning its own fat to survive — so that excess calories pass through the system instead of turning to flab.

Though initially greeted by most nutritionists with scepticism, who dismissed the diet as too good to be true, the method proved spectacularly successful for Dr Mosley himself.

His book The Fast Diet, co-written with journalist Mimi Spencer and published in 2012, recommended a stringent regime on two days a week, with just 600 calories for men and 500 for women.

Celebrities who adopted it reported astonishing results. The US comedian Jimmy Kimmel shed 25 lb (nearly 2 st) in a few months. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch used the method to achieve his hollow-cheeked look for the BBC1 drama Sherlock.

Dr Mosley first decided to investigate the diet after a blood test revealed he was in the early stages of type 2 diabetes.

‘That was a nasty shock,’ he said, ‘because my overweight dad had developed diabetes in his 50s and died of diabetes-related illnesses at the relatively young age of 74. I didn’t want to go down the same path.

‘So I set out to find out if there was a drug-free way to ‘cure’ my diabetes. Periodic fasting sounded so interesting that I persuaded the BBC to let me make a science documentary with myself as the guinea pig. It was called Eat, Fast And Live Longer.’

The programme, shown as part of BBC2’s documentary series Horizon, featured interviews with experts such as Professor Valter Longo from the University of Southern California and Dr Krista Varady from the University of Illinois.

That became the template for a series of shows, bolstered by the remarkable personal success of his 5:2 diet — he lost 20 lb and his blood sugar levels fell to normal, safe levels.

‘This was revolutionary stuff,’ he said, ‘as most doctors believe type 2 diabetes is incurable and that the only way to treat it is with drugs.’

His results were so dramatic that the NHS website, which had initially dismissed 5:2 as a ‘fad diet’, added it to its ‘Top Diets review’, and said: ‘Sticking to a regimen for two days a week can be more achievable than seven days, so you may be more likely to persevere and lose weight.’

Dr Mosley became an evangelist for the method, promoting it in this newspaper.

Further research revealed what made the regime so effective, he said. ‘The main reason I managed to knock my diabetes on the head was that I had lost a lot of weight, fast. Professor Roy Taylor, a diabetes specialist at Newcastle University, has done studies showing that if you lose over 10 per cent of your body weight (which I had), the fat is drained from your liver and pancreas, and your body is restored to its former health.’

He refined the diet, raising the calorie limit to 800 on fast days, and urging people to go 14 hours a day without eating — having an evening meal at 6 pm, for example, and then fasting until breakfast at 8 am. For those who needed a crash diet, he recommended 800 calories every day for weeks or even months.

All this flew in the face of traditional advice, which was based on cutting out fats and carbohydrates, and restricting calorie intake without actually fasting.

Known for his open nature, Dr Mosley did not shy away from discussing the worst threat to his health — chronic insomnia, caused by stress as well as a genetic predisposition. ‘I suffer from catastrophic thinking,’ he told the Mail five years ago.

‘I used to worry about the children when they were younger. Now that they have all turned out OK, I worry about my work — did I say the wrong thing on a chat show, write the wrong thing in a book? What if someone loses too much weight and makes themselves ill? My work is utterly rooted in science, but people are people and they can do crazy things.’

Insomnia became such a burden that he published a book, 4 Weeks To Better Sleep, detailing all the systems he had tried. His conclusion was that what mattered most was not how many hours we spend in bed, but the quality of the sleep itself — what he called ‘your sleep efficiency’.

Long hours of wakefulness and a natural inclination to philosophy forced him to confront life’s toughest questions.

He sometimes talked to journalists with characteristic insouciance about death: ‘I would like to die surfing or sky‑diving. I wouldn’t mind falling off my bike and going under a bus either, something short and sharp — with apologies to the driver.

‘Would I ever kill myself? I would not rule it out. I can imagine things going badly wrong, a catastrophic illness, a stroke, a cancer. I would not want to be a burden but it would utterly depend on Clare. It’s a decision I would take with her.’

Dr Mosley’s enthusiasm was legendary. One friend said: ‘Michael never stops talking. He’s like a podcast on legs.’

Filming a segment on the physiology of fear for one among his dozens of shows, he defied his claustrophobia by going caving — and became wedged in a crack in the rocks.

‘I absolutely freaked,’ he admitted. ‘It obviously made good television because there was a lot of screaming.’

After that, though, he felt uncomfortable even in lifts and planes, and was unable to go through with an MRI brain examination inside a coffin-like scanner.

For a documentary called The Wonderful World Of Blood, he made and ate a black pudding using his own red corpuscles.

‘I don’t think it will take off as a national dish,’ he announced, ‘but it’s pretty nutritious — rich in iron, protein and vitamin C.’

Despite his self-proclaimed ‘squareness’, he ingested psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, in a laboratory-controlled test to discover its effect on the brain — ‘Like going into hyperdrive on Star Trek,’ he concluded.

All these programmes were sideshows, however, compared to the great project of his career, the fasting diet.

‘I’m 100 per cent evangelical about this,’ he often declared. ‘One of the big medical myths is that a fast diet won’t work. But all the evidence now is that rapid weight loss is effective. People are very interested in this stuff. They know it can alter the trajectory of their life.’

Countless fans have had their lives transformed by his enthusiasm, his free-thinking and eccentric readiness to take risks. Meeting them was one of the great pleasures of his life, he said.

‘I love chatting. People often stop me in the street, and I really enjoy finding out what’s going on with them. It’s a fantastic feeling when people tell you that you have helped to turn their lives around.’