BBC Breakfast star Charlie Stayt shared a heartbreaking story during Friday’s live show
BBC Breakfast’s Charlie Stayt shares emotional news as guest left in tears(Image: BBC)
BBC Breakfast star Charlie Stayt shared some emotional news on Friday (February 13) as a guest was left in tears. During today’s show, Charlie and his co-star Naga Munchetty brought viewers up to speed with the day’s top stories from Britain and beyond.
They were supported by meteorologist Matt Taylor, who provided regular weather forecasts, whilst Mike Bushell and Peter Ruddick covered the sports news and Valentine’s Day content, respectively.
During the programme, Charlie disclosed that the Chair of the Commons Health Committee has urged the UK’s medicines regulator to reassess warnings surrounding drugs that may trigger impulsive behaviour as an adverse effect. Naga outlined: “A BBC investigation has found that for some patients, the drugs cause impulsive gambling or sexual behaviour.”
A pre-filmed report by BBC correspondent Noel Titheradge featured Freddie, whose father Bill died three years ago. Bill had been given medication for Parkinson’s disease, which resulted in devastating side effects, reports the Mirror.
A guest broke down in tears(Image: BBC)
“He was an incredibly straight laced, risk averse person,” Freddie recalled. “He worked as a teacher his whole career and then, aged 54, retired early. He’d developed some symptoms around his movement and speech, and went on to medication shortly after.”
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Bill received drugs designed to increase dopamine activity for treating Parkinson’s, yet his conduct began to alter dramatically. He started viewing pornography without discretion and driving recklessly, before proceeding to sell the family home – suddenly finding himself in financial difficulty.
Freddie revealed: “He said it’s invested. [I asked], ‘Okay, where?’ [He said it was] in Ghana. My heart just totally sank. These side effects of severe impulse control disorder, hypersexuality made dad the perfect victim for a romance scam.”
Nobody had alerted Freddie to the potential side effects, and when he discovered them in 2017, his father had already lost approximately £300,000. As he recalled the difficulties his father endured, Freddie became visibly emotional in heartbreaking footage.
A man with Parkinson’s suffered devastating side effects(Image: BBC)
“The money was of total insignificance to the pain of losing dad,” he said through tears, with reporter Noel encouraging Freddie to “take a minute”.
The journalist continued: “Our investigations heard from scores of families who say these impulsive behaviours have led to huge debts, the break up of families and even criminality. One man stole £600,000 to fund his impulsive behaviour. Another woman lost over £150,000 to gambling.”
Noel added: “Manufacturers of the drugs say they were extensively trialled, continue to be approved by regulators around the world, and side effects are clearly stated.” Three years following his father’s passing, Freddie says the impact will stay with him forever. He concluded: “It is a massive scandal. I dread to think how many people have been impacted.”
Elsewhere on today’s BBC Breakfast, Naga revealed that two men would be sentenced today after planning a “deadly” terrorist attack in Manchester. At the start of the show, the host announced: “Two men will be sentenced later for planning a gun attack on a mass gathering of Jewish people, which detectives say could have been one of the deadliest terror attacks in UK history.”
