Body of missing British TV presenter Michael Mosley found on Greek island

In this undated photo provided by the BBC on Sunday, June 9, 2024, doctor and broadcaster Michael Mosley speaks on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. (Jeff Overs/BBC via AP)

Athens, Greece -

The body of missing British TV presenter Michael Mosley was found on a Greek island Sunday morning after a days-long search, his family said.

A police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation, said a body was found on a rocky coast by a private boat and that formal identification was pending.

Mosley’s wife said in a statement that her husband took the wrong route on a hike and collapsed in a place where his body couldn’t easily be seen. Mosley went missing on the island of Symi on Wednesday afternoon.

“Michael was an adventurous man, it’s part of what made him so special,” Dr. Clare Bailey Mosley said. “It’s devastating to have lost Michael, my wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant husband. We had an incredibly lucky life together. We loved each other very much and were so happy together.”

She thanked the people of the island of Symi, who she said worked tirelessly to find him.

“Some of these people on the island, who hadn’t even heard of Michael, worked from dawn till dusk unasked,” she said. “My family and I have been hugely comforted by the outpouring of love from people from around the world. It’s clear that Michael meant a huge amount to so many of you.”

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Lefteris Papakalodoukas, the island's mayor, told The Associated Press he was on the boat with members of the media representatives when they saw a body some 20 metres above the Agia Marina beach. “We zoomed with the cameras and saw it was him,” he said.

The mayor said that Mosley appeared to have fallen down a steep, rocky slope, stopping against a fence and lying face-up with a few rocks on top of it.

As police officers were retrieving Mosley's body, one fell on the slope and had to be carried away on a stretcher, local media reported. The body will be taken to the nearby island of Rhodes for autopsy.

Mosley, 67, was well-known in Britain for his regular appearances on television and radio and his column in the Daily Mail newspaper. He was known outside the U.K. for his 2013 book “The Fast Diet,” which he co-authored with journalist Mimi Spencer. The book proposed the so-called “5:2 diet,” which promised to help people lose weight quickly by minimizing their calorie intake two days a week while eating healthily on the other five.

He subsequently introduced a rapid weight loss program and made a number of films about diet and exercise.

Mosley often pushed his body to extreme lengths to see the effects of his diets and also lived with tapeworms in his guts for six weeks for the BBC documentary “Infested! Living With Parasites.”

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Mosley had four children with his wife Clare Bailey Mosley, who is also a doctor, author and health columnist.

Brian Melley contributed to this report from London.