BBC Breakfast paid an emotional tribute to late presenter Dermot Murnaghan after his death aged 68 on Saturday10:27, 13 Jul 2026Updated 10:32, 13 Jul 2026BBC Breakfast spoke to Dermot Murnaghan's former co-star Sian Williams on Monday following his sad death.‌It was announced over the weekend that veteran broadcaster Dermot had died aged 68, a year after revealing he had been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer.‌His family released a statement saying he passed away at his North London home on Saturday (11 July) morning. "He died peacefully with his family at his side," they shared.‌The star's family, wife-of-37-years Maria Keegan and children Kitty, Molly, Alice, and Jack, wrote: "The family wish to thank the medical teams who cared for Dermot with such sensitivity and extraordinary compassion throughout his illness; also, for the many, many kind messages of goodwill that he received over the last year since his diagnosis of Stage IV prostate cancer and his subsequent campaigning to raise awareness for screening programmes for the disease."Paying tribute to Dermot, BBC Breakfast hosts Sally Nugent and Jon Kay played an emotional montage video of Dermot's best moments on BBC Breakfast from 2002 to 2007, where he then moved to Sky News.‌Following the video tribute, BBC Breakfast spoke to Dermot's former BBC Breakfast co-star Sian Williams. Host Sally, 54, asked Sian, 61: "Sian, I'm so sorry because I know he was your mate and I just wonder first of all if you could explain to the people at home who saw the TV side of him what Dermot was like."To which Sian responded: "Oh he was he was warm. He was funny. He was incredibly versatile. I mean we just saw there didn't we? And those of us who were lucky to work with him saw what he was like as a professional.'You know when you're sitting next to somebody, as you know for three hours a day, four days a week for many years you see how they work and you learn to have a trust and respect in them, seeing how that professionalism works on telly and I think the reason that so many viewers had trust in him was because they knew that he'd done the work.‌"He was authoritative. He was incredibly professional. He didn't work from a script or a list of questions when he was interviewing politicians. You know he said: 'If I couldn't ask my own questions I don't deserve the right to be here.' So that was the man sort of on screen and off screen he was just a really good bloke."Later in the interview, Sian spoke about Dermot's prostate cancer battle. The former BBC, ITV and Sky News presenter announced his diagnosis last summer, sharing that he was responding positively to treatment while urging men to be aware of the disease and get tested.‌Sian said: "I talked to him just before he revealed the diagnosis publicly and we talked about that difficulty of making something so private public when you're so aware of the impact on your family and you want to protect them but he knew the impact that his voice would have and he wished that he had got screened earlier, that his cancer had been detected earlier and that was a message that he was determined to get out to the public."Thousands of men got tested because of him, who will live because of him, and that is an amazing legacy to leave. Having done that over the last year when you think of the amount of energy that that takes when you're going through cancer treatment, cancer treatment is difficult and exhausting and puts huge strain not just on yourself but on your family.‌"To be looking after your family and also to be doing what he did so well, which is reporting and communicating and letting people know a really important message, just I think says everything about him as a man."Sian ended her interview by saying: "As I say, he took the news seriously, he didn't take himself seriously at all. He was great fun and he loved being on BBC Breakfast. You know, he said we were a family and we are often forged in adversity because you do have to be able to catch someone and trust someone and have confidence in the person that you're sitting next to when you're doing a programme like that and understand the importance of it and the responsibility you have to the audience."He really really understood that, he was a brilliant brilliant broadcaster, he's left an amazing legacy and he was just a really good bloke."Article continues belowBBC Breakfast airs at 6am on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.