He once sold hairpieces in Los Angeles, but the best thing he sold was himself. 'Terrific friends': Ingrid and Dai pictured recently But it will, I know, and then there will be real pain and tears. 'I don't think his death has hit me - I'm still in shock.

'I don't want to sound boastful but, yes, he was a little in love with me. 'The only way to deal with his lifestyle would have been to join him. 'I couldn't have married Dai - it would have killed me,' she says. Dai, for his part, asked her to marry him, but she felt she had to decline. Ingrid describes their relationship as a 'deep, deep friendship'. 'All his friends feel the same - what are we going to do without Dai?' Losing him feels as if someone has reached inside my body and plucked out the laughter,' she says. 'Since my husband died, Dai has been central to my life. Losing Dai has devastated her all over again. It was stories like the one about Reg and Ruby that brought the laughter back into Ingrid's life after the anguish of losing Ross. Then, when Ingrid's husband, the journalist Ross Benson, died suddenly in 2005, it was Dai who turned up at her house with a bottle of champagne, a bottle of vodka and a promise - which he kept unswervingly - to help her through her grief. A brief but intense affair developed into an enduring friendship. In the final couple of years, after all the women in his life, she was his cherished companion.

Sir Dai and Ingrid did a lot of reminiscing in the months leading to his death. 'Dai and Judith made all kinds of friends among the holidaymakers, who were completely taken in by their characters.' 'Dai became so involved with his character he even kept up the charade when they were in private,' says Ingrid. Sir Dai, who died this week aged 62, recently recounted the tale to Ingrid Seward - the royal biographer and editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine - and she howled with laughter. Enduring friendship: Dai Llewellyn and Ingrid Seward partying in the Eighties

My husband and i by ingrid seward