The cause of death of the late Bert Newton has been revealed by his wife Patti in a new interview.

The beloved entertainer passed away last weekend at the age of 83, having had his leg amputated earlier in the year. “It was complications with everything,” Patti told Daily Mail Australia. ”

When you have a leg amputated you have to be on a lot of painkillers and Bert had had, just this year alone, he’s had eight procedures, which all involved anaesthetics and that affects you pretty badly.” She added: “Your whole system and just everything closes down really. That was all.”

Bert had struggled with declining health for at least a decade, which included a bout of viral pneumonia back in 2011. A second battle with the virus saw him hospitalised in 2017.

After Patti had posted a picture of her husband in a hospital bed last November, fans were taken aback a few months later in May when news was shared of Bert’s leg amputation. It was a dramatic but necessitated action after docs told him that he could either lose his leg or die within months.

In the same interview, Patti also confirmed that their son Matthew wouldn’t be returning to Australia in order to attend his father’s stare funeral. She did, however, take a swipe at the media for painting the family as being estranged from the actor at the time of Bert’s death.

“The press are just desperate to find a little glitch into (their relationship),” she insisted. “He won’t be coming. For no reason. I don’t know, I mean maybe he needs to put a statement out to stop everybody thinking that there’s a rift or something.”

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Victoria Premier Dan Andrews confirmed over the weekend that Bert would be honoured with a state funeral, most likely to be held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne. It’s unclear currently when that will be though.

For more on this topic, follow the Film & TV Observer.

Check out a compilation of the best of Bert Newton:

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