Many of those who turned out to watch the procession were accompanied by their beloved pet dogs in a touching tribute to the star. It was a really great day. Sharon looked fabulous and Philip is a smashing fella. They fit together like a pan and a lid,’ O’Grady said.

O’Grady was formerly married to Portuguese model Teresa Fernandes – but he admitted that it was a ‘marriage of convenience’, and they were not in an active relationship. He has worked with many other dance companies including Sadlers Wells Theatre and the Royal Ballet School since retiring, as well as being the CEO, producer and director of Artstreaming TV, a digital production company focused on the cultural sector. The star’s daughter Sharyn Mousley joined him, Andre Portasio and his sister Sheila Rudd when he was made an MBE in 2008 (Picture: PA)The LGBTQ+ rights campaigner Peter Tatchell remembered O’Grady as “one of the loveliest people you could ever meet. Everyone whose lives he touched will miss him greatly, as will those who enjoyed his wit and admired his compassion”. Born in Birkenhead in 1955, O’Grady moved to London in his 20s and worked as a social worker for Camden council. By 1978, he was developing his drag act Lily Savage in gay clubs, basing the loud-mouthed single mother and occasional sex worker on female relatives. O’Grady, who sprang to fame as his beloved drag alter ego Lily Savage, went on to present The Big Breakfast before fronting The Paul O’Grady Show, Blind Date, Blankety Blank, and ITV’s multi-award-winning For The Love Of Dogs. He had been married to partner Andre Portasio since 2017, although the pair had been in a relationship since 2005. It was his second marriage, with the pair getting together after O’Grady ended his 28-year marriage to the woman he married in 1977.

Paul was also granddad to Sharon’s two children, son Abel, who was born in 2006, and daughter Halo, born in 2009. Who is Paul O’Grady’s husband Andre Portasio? O’Grady came to mainstream attention in 1991 when he was nominated for the Perrier award, the UK’s most prestigious comedy prize, and began appearing on radio and television as himself. O’Grady retired Savage – to “a convent in Brittany” – in 2004.The couple were wed in 1977, O’Grady later saying that he married her to prevent her from being deported.