Craig Rowe, a presenter on the Channel 4 property show A Place in the Sun, has returned to social media after weeks of silence to announce the death of one of his closest friends, telling followers he has been crying with tears of love every day since the loss.
In a post published on 27 October 2026, according to EXPRESS, Rowe explained that his friend Julian, known as Jules, died a few weeks ago after a friendship of more than 30 years. He described the grief as something very difficult to process and said the journey is new to him because he has never before lost someone so close.
Who was Jules and what did Craig Rowe say about him?
Rowe shared a series of photographs of himself, Jules and their mutual best friend Lanze, writing that the three formed what he called quite the trio. He said the friendship did not drift apart as life moved in different directions but instead continued to grow and blossom, surviving ups and downs without anything ever rocking its foundation.
He described Jules as one of the most unique, funny, caring, fun-loving, compassionate and sincere people he had ever met.
“My beloved Julian (or ‘Jules’ as many of his friends including me called him) was the most unique, funny, caring, fun-loving, compassionate and sincere people I have ever met and I had the privilege of having him as one of my best friends for over 30 years,” Rowe wrote.
Three weeks before the post, Rowe said, he read aloud a tribute he had written with Lanze at a thanksgiving service for Jules' life. He described it as a magical day, with hundreds of people gathering to celebrate, and said the sun shone brightly for the last time that autumn.
What the outpouring of support tells us about public grief
The response to Rowe's post was immediate. Followers wrote messages of condolence, telling the presenter he was in their thoughts and prayers, sending what one described as massive loving hugs, and urging him to hold on to the memories of good times. One commenter wrote that it looked like the friends had had a blast together.
Rowe's decision to share his grief publicly matters. Grief remains one of the least discussed experiences in public life, especially for men, who are still socialised to process loss privately and without language for it. When a well-known figure names his tears openly, saying he cries every day and that a big part of grief is love, it widens the space for everyone else to do the same. Public figures who model emotional honesty do quiet, undervalued work: they push back against a culture that treats mourning as an inconvenience to be managed quickly and returned from, as if a person were a machine needing minimal downtime.
Rowe wrote that he and Jules always told each other how much they loved each other. That detail deserves attention. In a culture that still treats expressions of love between friends, particularly male friends, as awkward or excessive, a 30-year friendship built on routinely saying I love you is a small act of resistance against emotional norms that isolate people precisely when they most need community.
Grief, community and the ethics of care
Rowe's account of the thanksgiving service, attended by hundreds of people, is a reminder that mourning has always been collective. The privatisation of grief, the expectation that bereavement happens behind closed doors and is then neatly resumed from, is a relatively recent and deeply harmful arrangement. It leaves carers, elderly people, disabled people, migrants separated from their families and anyone whose support networks have been thinned by precarity to process loss alone.
The communal celebration Rowe described, with a shared tribute, music and a dance routine the friends used to perform for anyone who would watch, models a different approach. It treats death as something a community metabolises together rather than something an individual must survive in isolation. Grief scholars and palliative care workers have argued for decades that collective rituals protect mental health; Rowe's post is a lived illustration of that principle.
He also wrote that Jules would have wanted life to go on, and imagined his friend telling him not to sit around getting maudlin but to get out and conquer life every day, with a glass of champagne if possible. Rowe added that he is returning to social media because it is part of his life and because Jules more than anyone knew life was to be lived, experienced and never taken for granted.
A wider pattern of presenters speaking openly about loss
Rowe is not the only A Place in the Sun presenter to mourn publicly in recent weeks. According to The Mirror, his colleague Jasmine Harman paid tribute to a guest on the show, Delroy, after his death, writing on Instagram that she was incredibly sad at the tragic news and dedicating an episode to his memory. Brit Brief reported that the guest had died months before the episode first aired, meaning viewers learned of his death long after filming.
These moments matter beyond the individual programmes. They show presenters, often expected to remain relentlessly upbeat on camera, refusing the emotional labour norms of light entertainment. Naming death on a show about new beginnings abroad, a genre built on the fantasy of escape and reinvention, quietly acknowledges that no property, relocation or lifestyle change exempts anyone from loss.
Why public figures naming grief matters
Rowe's post closes with a note that the music accompanying the images was one of the friends' favourite songs, one they had a dance routine for and would perform for anybody who would watch. It is a small, joyful detail, and it says something about how memory works: we carry the dead forward through shared songs, in-jokes and rituals, not through solemn silence.
Rowe has said he will keep living the way Jules encouraged him to, out loud and with love. His followers have made clear he will not do it alone.
FAQ
Who did Craig Rowe lose?
Craig Rowe lost his close friend Julian, known as Jules, a friendship of more than 30 years. He announced the death on social media on 27 October 2026.
What did Craig Rowe say about his grief?
Rowe wrote that he has been crying with tears of love every day and that a big part of grief is love. He read a tribute at Jules' thanksgiving service alongside their friend Lanze.
Has another A Place in the Sun presenter spoken about loss recently?
Yes. Jasmine Harman paid tribute to a show guest, Delroy, who died months before his episode aired, dedicating the broadcast to his memory.