British diet guru and TV personality Michael Mosley was found dead on Sunday on the Greek island of Symi where he went missing this week, police said.
“People on a boat saw a body close to the rocky coast,” said Petros Vassilakis, police chief for the southern Aegean region.
The lifeless body was spotted by a television crew from Greece’s ERT public channel out filming in the area where the 67-year-old disappeared.
A cameraman “saw something strange near the fence, 50 metres from the sea”, ERT reporter Aristides Miaoulis said on air.
“We discovered it was this man… he was lying down (on his back).”
Symi’s mayor Lefteris Papakalodoukas was also with the crew and confirmed they had found Mosley, who had been vacationing on the island.
“It’s the body of the journalist that we have been looking for over several days,” he told ERT.
Authorities announced on Friday they were intensifying the search for the Briton last seen alive on Wednesday. His wife, Clare Bailey, notified the police that evening when he didn’t return from a solo coastal walk. Papakalodoukas mentioned that Symi has been experiencing “insufferable heat,” with the area where Mosley was last sighted being particularly challenging due to its rocky terrain.
Greece has seen record temperatures in early June, with Symi reaching 39.3 degrees Celsius (103 degrees Fahrenheit), close to Rhodes and western Turkey.
Tom Watson, a former deputy leader of the UK’s Labour party who credited Mosley’s book for his weight loss, honored him as a “hero” who produced “courageous, science-based journalism.” Mosley’s BBC co-presenter, Saleyha Ahsan, praised his dedication to making science accessible to everyone. Mosley, initially trained as a doctor after working as an investment banker, joined the BBC as a trainee producer.
He became known for his science and history documentaries, and over the past decade, he gained recognition as a health guru and best-selling diet book author. Mosley, known for popularizing the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet, frequently appeared on TV programs like “The One Show” and “This Morning.”
