Johnnie Walker died two months after calling time on his 58-year radio career due to ill health. The legendary BBC DJ died aged 79 on December 31, 2024 and had been living with pulmonary fibrosis, which is scarring of the lungs, a condition which makes breathing difficult. The broadcaster’s wife, Tiggy Walker, has opened up about his last moments for the first time.

It comes as she took to the airwaves for her first ever solo show to celebrate what would have been his 80th birthday today, and shared a heartbreaking detail about his final wish. Tiggy, who was married to Johnnie for 23 years, recounted how her ailing husband “decided he wanted to do a final kitchen disco despite being in a wheelchair and on oxygen”.

She also shared the gathering last August became the last time he DJ’d for a live audience and he signed off with a Bette Midler tearjerker.

“Johnnie decided he wanted to do a final kitchen disco,” Tiggy told listeners. “He used to tend to at the end of supper parties. He either went to bed very early, or he decided he was going to start playing music and everyone would get dancing and you never knew which way it was going to go.

“Anyway, this time he said he specifically wanted a kitchen disco, and I kept saying, Are you sure, Johnnie? Yes, I am. Are you sure? He was.”

She shared the insight during her show on Boom Radio to be broadcast Sunday at 8pm.

Tiggy recalled how she “moved all the furniture, hung up fairy lights, and a bunch of friends came over”.

“And this for him was, it was a really symbolic event in fact, because he knew it would be the last time he’d be playing live music to an audience,” she explained. “So our friends duly danced to all his songs until 11 o’clock when he decided he’d had Enough.”

The final song he played for the small audience was Bette Midler’s The Rose.