Gloria Hunniford on Sir Cliff Richard's BBC privacy court case: 'I don’t think he’ll ever truly get over it'

GLORIA HUNNIFORD ON SIR CLIFF RICHARD WINNING HIS PRIVACY COURT CASE

As Sir Cliff Richard won his privacy case against the BBC for its coverage of the police raid on his home in 2014 and invasion of his privacy, our Gloria explained how Sir Cliff was feeling.

'To be there on the day of judgement was just amazing. I was literally sitting just behind him. We were all butterflies in the stomach,' Gloria said. 'It’s been anticipation for so long. I thought it would be almost hands in the air [in court], but it was very emotional.'

High Court judge Mr Justice Mann awarded an initial £210,000 in damages. The BBC said journalists acted in good faith and it is considering an appeal.

'This has been four years - bar one month - of trying to prove his innocence and of course he did prove his innocence when he was cleared of the actual accusations himself,' Gloria said.

'He was brave to take on the BBC. He was advised by many people not to do that, just to accept the judgement that he was clear and to go on and enjoy his life. But he insisted. He was adamant he was going to do it. And in the end, he was right. It justifies all that angst of four years, night and day, and not sleeping and losing weight and not being able to stop talking about it really.'

Talking about Sir Cliff’s reaction to the ruling, Gloria said: 'Cliff said some really poignant things. He said to me, "I prayed every single night for four years that truth will out". That was a really important statement. He was so excited. We were all kind of shaking and excited. When he went down to face the press, there was a barrage of people there [...] he just wasn’t able to speak. It’ll take a little while.'

'I personally don’t think he’ll ever truly get over it. I don’t think you get over four years of turmoil like that. He’s such a lovely man. He’s a good honest man. I think he took it so much to heart,' Gloria said. 'I hope his life begins again as from now [...] let’s see [him do] what he does best.'

Watch the video to see the full chat with Gloria.