Barry McGuigan fought back tears on Loose Women as he admitted it took ‘five years of hibernation’ before he could show his face after the death of his daughter.

Danika pᴀssed away aged 33 back in July 2019, one month after being diagnosed with bowel cancer. 

Barry and his wife Sandra Mealiff, who share four children, appeared on the ITV show today to talk about their 44-year marriage this Valentine’s Day. 

The conversation with Kaye Adams, GK Barry, Katie Piper and Nadia Sawalha soon turned to when Barry opened up about losing their late daughter during his stint on I’m A Celebrity last year. 

Sandra said: ‘I was worried, even though it’s five and a half years down the line, it’s nothing.

‘It changes your life forever. You try and become accustomed to it, obviously, it changes your outlook. ‘ 

Barry McGuigan fights back the tears on Loose Women as he admits it took ‘five years of hibernation’ before he could show his face in wake of daughter’s tragic death

Barry and his wife Sandra Mealiff, who share four children, appeared on the ITV show today and bravely spoke about their late daughter 

Barry pictured with his late daughter Danika at the screening of The Fighter at The Soho H๏τel on January 24, 2011

Barry went on to say: ‘Losing my brother to suicide, losing my dad at 52, then losing my sister last year, and of all, losing our daughter.’

Sandra added: ‘We hibernated for a very long time.’

Barry chimed in: ‘We’re just coming out of it now, actually.’

Sandra told the Loose Women: ‘It was one of the first things he did [I’m A Celebrity]…

‘He went straight in there. It was a real vulnerability.’

Katie asked if going into the Australian jungle was like going into therapy, to which Barry said: ‘GK and everyone else was so great to me when I got upset that day…’

The boxer got very emotional and struggled to finish his sentence.

He continued: ‘You kind of feel like you have to get upset, for me…’ 

The Loose Women panel brought up how brave Barry was to talk about his late daughter while on I’m A Celebrity last year

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Nadia said: ‘The pain is the grief, the  grief is the love.’ 

Sandra told her: ‘We’re not the only people, so people that are going through the same as what we are going through, or what we’ve been through.

‘I’m not saying other people don’t, but the longevity of what you carry. 

‘It’s the same for all grief.’ 

Nadia replied: ‘We don’t really get over it, we learn to grow around it.’

Barry agreed: ‘Yes you learn to cope with it.’ 

Speaking to MailOnline after his stint on I’m A Celebrity, Barry said: ‘She travels with me everywhere.

‘It looks like she has a spot at the moment but that’s just because I have a rash from all those bloody cockroaches. I’m sure she would have been laughing about that.

‘But no, I know she watched the show regularly, I knew she was with me in there. I probably wouldn’t have got as far as I did without her being with me, I know that she travels with me everywhere. 

‘I believe that 100 percent, we will see each other again some time.’

Danika was also diagnosed with leukemia when she was just 11-years-old and recovered from it. 

Barry and Sandra, who tied the knot in 1981, are also proud parents to Shane, Jake and Blane.

Elsewhere in the segment, the couple revealed how they got together.

Barry explained: ‘We lived across the road from each other. Her mum and dad had a hardware store and a 15 bed H๏τel, we had a grocery business on the other side.

‘My dad was a professional musician. We knew each other. Sandy went to school in the north, I went to school in the south. We grew up with each other. It was no surprise.’ 

Barry admitted that he gave Sandra a wedding ring when they were both just eight-years-old.  

‘It was a proper gold wedding ring. It was a little big at the time,’ Sandra confessed.

Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV and is available to stream on ITVX.