Linda Lusardi has started to think about her own "mortality" since the death of her mother

She told Best magazine: "There'll be a big hole at the table [at Christmas]. Life is a conveyor belt - it makes you think of your mortality, but it also makes you grateful. In the last few years, Mum needed me to do more, and I loved it. It wasn't a chore. She was just more of my life than she had been. We just all need to be grateful for the time we have together."

The former glamour model - who has Lucy, 28, and 25-year-old Jack with husband Samuel Kane - also revealed that her mother had passed away at the age of 90 after struggling to get over an infection of COVID-19 and it is only now that she can discuss things without bursting into tears.

She said: "Mum lived a few roads away, so maybe I just felt I should have been nearer to where she was... She was 90. She wasn't young but I just didn't want it to be her time. I can talk without crying now, but she caught COVID- in the July and never got over the infection."

Linda then reflected on the Christmases of her childhood and joked that while she was always

She said: "There was a stocking on the end of my bed that Santa had filled by the morning. I was terrified over the thought of a man coming into my room (laughs) but it was magical! And Mum had a 'best set' that only came out for Christmas dinner.

"It was always turkey and trimmings and a Christmas pud we set alight."