1Alison Hammond reveals the sweet message sent by Julian Clary giving her Paul O’Grady’s blessing to host For The Love Of Dogs after his death
Alison Hammond reveals the sweet message sent by Julian Clary giving her Paul O’Grady’s blessing to host For The Love Of Dogs after his death
Alison Hammond has revealed the sweet message sent to her by Julian Clary, after she was announced as the new host of ITV‘s For The Love Of Dogs.
The former Big Brother star told how comedian Julian gave her Paul O’Grady’s blessing to front the popular series, after his death last March.
Paul became an ambassador for Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in 2012 following the success of the award-winning programme, which he hosted for 11 series.
Alison recalled the recent heartfelt interaction between Julian and herself, while anchoring Friday’s instalment of This Morning with Dermot O’Leary.
She said: ‘I’ve always wanted a dog, you know that, but you have to take it very, very seriously,’ with Dermot adding: ‘And Paul loved dogs, obviously. You got the sweetest message didn’t you, from Julian Clary?’
Alison Hammond has revealed the sweet message sent to her by Julian Clary , after she was announced as the new host of ITV’s For The Love Of Dogs
The former Big Brother star told how comedian Julian gave her Paul O’Grady ‘s blessing to front the popular series, after his death last March, telling her: ‘he will be so happy’
Despite Alison’s lovely message from Julian, it seemed that This Morning viewers were not keen on her being given the hosting gig, noting how she doesn’t even own a dog
Alison responded: ‘Yeah, he text me yesterday and he just said… Firstly he told me he was in The Maldives, I was a little bit jealous…
‘And he said, ”I’m so happy you’ve got the job and Paul actually thought a lot of you, Alison, thought very highly of you, and he will be so happy, as am I”, and it really got me.
‘I’m so so happy I just want to make him so proud in his legacy of Battersea and carry on that work because the charity does so much good work.
‘We just wanna find some amazing homes for some wonderful dogs. I have fell in love with about three.’
Despite Alison’s lovely message from Julian, it seemed that This Morning viewers were not keen on her being given the hosting gig, noting how she doesn’t even own a dog.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one person wrote: ‘Disappointing to see Alison Hammond taking over For the love of Dogs.
‘I’m sure she’s a lovely person but she surely doesn’t have the personality for it, it’s about the animals not the presenter. Apparently she doesn’t even have any pets. Gutted I won’t be watching it. #itv.’
Another tweeted: ‘#ThisMorning #AlisonHammond #Fortheloveofdogs the joy and pleasure of watching For the love of Dogs was watching Paul O’Grady’s pure love and compassion with the dogs, also his quick wit and humour. Something Alison Hammond will never have. The wrong choice !!’
A third disgruntled viewer fumed: ‘Well #ThisMorning you can try and fob of us and go all #TeamHammond – BUT NO!!! She is STILL the worst choice for, FOR THE LOVE OF DOGS. A f**king Loud Cat Lover. Prediction… THE RATINGS WILL BOMB! Not watching it.’
Someone else wrote: ‘Laughing my a** off at #ThisMorning trying so hard to make #AlisonHammond seem like a dog person. She ain’t. We all know it. And I won’t be watching For The Love Of Dogs with her fronting it.’
Paul, who died last March, became an ambassador for the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in 2012 following the success of the award-winning programme, which he hosted for 11 series
When Alison was confirmed as the new host for The Love Of Dogs at the end of last month, she admitted that she ‘can never replace the iconic Paul.
Alison said: ‘I am very aware that I can never replace the iconic Paul in this wonderful series, but if I can continue to shine a light on the brilliant work done at Battersea and help to tell the stories of these beautiful dogs, then it will be an absolute privilege to give it my all.
‘I can’t wait to share the joy of their searches for new, loving, forever homes and hopefully make lots of furry friends of my own along the way.’
