My Mum, Your Dad viewers ‘absolutely heartbroken’ watching widower Roger’s search for love

‘What a true gent, big heart and the nation loves you,’ posted one fan

My Mum, Your Dad viewers were left emotional last night (11 September) after one contestant on the ITV show, a widower called Roger, began his journey to find love again.

The dating show, hosted by Davina McCall, sees eight single parents go away to a West Sussex country house in the hopes of finding a new partner.

Unbeknown to the parents, their children are watching their every move, and playing matchmakers, from a nearby “bunker”.

In the first episode, viewers were rooting for Roger after his date with Caroline, which came after the women chose which man they wanted to go on a first date with.

During the date, Roger, 58, opened up about the death of his late wife and the mother of his three children, Joanne, who died at the age of 52.

Caroline was reduced to tears as Roger told her of how Joanne had died from cancer 18 months ago.

He talked about how Joanne went to sleep on the sofa and never woke up again.

Viewers took to Twitter/X to share how emotional they found the scene.

“Aww Roger…. What a true gent, big heart and the nation loves you. I think we all wanted to jump through the telly and give him a squeeze,” posted one fan.

Another wrote: “It’s only episode one and I already want nothing but the world for Roger. GIVE THAT MAN A HUG.”

“What a great fella, absolutely heartbreaking. Roger seems like he deserves some happiness,” a third posted.

Roger was nominated to go on the show by his daughter, Jess. She spoke on the episode about how she wants him to be happy, and watched on as her father talked about her bond with her late mother.

Jess, who lives just six doors away from her father, was seen telling Roger: “It’s OK if you want to start dating again... get back to being yourself.”

In a recent launch event for the series, McCall discussed the significance of finding love again in midlife. She said: “It’s so important because there are so many people who are second-time rounders, or who have lost someone, or have gone through life unsuccessful in love.”

She added: “It’s about opening the door and coming home to someone. It’s hard to find it because we’re of that generation who are like, dating apps are weird. Like, what do you mean you’re dating 17 other people?!” Read the full story here.

The Independent’s critic Fiona Sturges gave the show a three-star review, writing that the show “appears to have mistaken the middle-aged contestants for helpless geriatrics”.