A lorra lorra pride from Cilla's boys: Veteran star celebrates BAFTA award with her sons

Cilla Black with her sons, Ben, 40, Robert, 43 and Jack, 33

SHE hardly looks old enough to be their mother, but Surprise Surprise, these three strapping brothers are the sons of Cilla Black.

 

The veteran TV star will be celebrating her 71st birthday in two weeks’ time.

And Cilla, elegant in a mustard coloured shift dress and matching jacket, posed happily with her proud sons yesterday as they celebrated the special Bafta award she is due to receive on Sunday.

As they enjoyed a private family lunch with their mother in London’s Borough Market, Robert, 43, Ben, 40, and 33-year-old Jack appeared very close and relaxed in each other’s company.

Robert, who is also her manager, has made Cilla a grandmother with his own children Max, nine, and seven-year-old Alana.

The former chart-topping pop star, who presented Blind Date and Surprise Surprise for ITV, will be honoured at the Bafta television awards in recognition of her contribution to entertainment over a 50-year career. Cilla was the first woman to have her own prime-time chat show on BBC1.

However, the entertainer admits she is starting to feel her age, and would like her life to end when she turns 75 – which is only four years away. “Seventy-five is a good age to go if things are starting to drop off,” said Cilla, who admits her hearing is deteriorating and she suffers from stiffness when she wakes up.

 

Cilla and Bobby with the boys in the Eighties

“I don’t want to linger. I don’t want to be a burden on anybody. I know 75 is only four years away, but I take each day as I find it.”

Bobby Willis, Cilla’s manager and husband of 30 years, died from lung cancer in 1999.

She also witnessed her mother’s health fail through osteoporosis, resulting in a slow and painful death. “It wasn’t a good experience,” she added. “I think that’s what made me feel like this.”

However, Cilla has no desire to end her life prematurely, despite the fact that she agrees with the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland.

 

“I couldn’t be the one to administer the poison that kills me,” she said. “I know I couldn’t commit suicide. I’m too much of a coward.”

Cilla also had a daughter, Ellen, who died two hours after her premature birth in 1975.

She admitted that her desire to die at 75 had upset her sons, particularly the eldest, Robert.

“Our Robert says to me, ‘You know it’s terribly selfish of you, don’t you want to see your grandchildren grow up?’ And I think it is a bit selfish.”