Reverend Richard Coles pays an emotional tribute to his late husband David after admitting he left a 'massive hole in his life'

Reverend Richard Coles paid tribute to his late husband David Oldham as he marked his birthday with an emotional post on Tuesday. 

The I'm A Celeb star, 62, took to Twitter as he shared a candid snap of David, who was also a priest, surrounded by his dogs while knitting with a grey face mask on. 

He penned: 'David’s birthday today. He would have been forty eight. RIP.'

David sadly passed away after battle with alcoholism in 2019 aged just 42 and during his time in the jungle the star admitted he left a 'massive hole in his life'.

Opening up about his grief with Oti Mabuse, Richard admitted: 'I miss him. And I want him to walk in the door. 

'I had a dream he walked in the door and he was just carrying a Co-op bag, just like he'd been shopping and I said to him "I thought you were dead" and he said "No I was just out shopping".

'I said "It's nice to see you, thanks for coming back" to which he said "Oh I'm not staying, I met somebody else",' Richard added, to which he and Oti began to laugh.

'But he's just a massive hole in my life and I'm living my life around that loss and I've met Dickie now, and that's great.

'So we're in a relationship now together but I just miss David very much.'

Richard and David met back in 2007 and entered a civil partnership three years later in 2010.  

Revealing how they met during I'm A Celeb he explained that David had heard him preach a sermon before 'picking him up' after Church. 

He added that he hadn't even realised he was romantically interested in him until he received a special text from him.

Richard said: 'I came to preach a sermon in his church and he sort of picked me up afterwards!'

Elaborating, he said of David: 'He heard me preach and afterwards he said that he was thinking about getting ordained and could he come and talk to me about it. So he came round one Sunday for lunch and it was all very proper and professional'.

He then explained how they talked and talked but Richard had to dash off to church, so David asked if he could come and talk to Richard again.

As Richard agreed they'd sort something in a month or six weeks, he got to church and his phone pinged, and it was a text from David saying: 'Don't you get it?'.

Richard then joked that that was when the penny dropped.

The star previously said David was 'probably' already an alcoholic, but neither of them was aware.

Speaking to BBC Radio Northampton, Richard said David had 'always had an enthusiastic fondness for alcohol'.

He said: 'An enthusiastic fondness for alcohol when you're 20 or 25 is one thing, when you're 35 or 40 it's another thing and his drinking just got out of control'.

He explained that David used 'an anaesthetic for when life was tough and then it just kind of rampaged.

'People used to talk about the 'demon drink' which sounds like a rather melodramatic way to describe it... But it is like someone is seized by a demon and when David was at his worst he was really difficult and it was very tough.'

Richard is now dating actor Dickie, 60, who is the son of Brian Cant, who presented children's TV shows such as Playschool and Dappledown Farm in the 60s and 70s.

They met on the dating site Elite Singles and the pair hit it off straight away, with Coles suggesting that marriage could soon be on the cards, telling The Times he could 'imagine it heading that way'.

The actor, from Kent, has starred in Mary Queen of Scots, Stan & Ollie and Doctor Who.

But the decision to date again after David's death was a very difficult one, and it took him three years to even consider it.