ITV Good Morning Britain star chokes back tears as she opens up on family heartbreak

good Morning Britain's Charlotte Hawkins was left fighting back tears as she opened up about her late father's battle with motor neurone disease.

The TV presenter's dad Frank passed away in 2015 aged 78 after three years battling terminal illness.

During Friday’s (August 22) episode of theITV hit breakfast show, Charlotte made a return to our TV screens alongside co-host Rob Rinder as they presented the day's top stories.

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However as the show was coming to an end, things took an emotional turn as Charlotte reflected on her late dad after a segment on how AI is helping MND patients hear their voices again.

It comes as MND sufferer Sarah Ezekiel recently got to use her voice again with the help of technology, decades after losing it.

Charlotte started off by saying: “On the subject of modern technology, there has been a lot of AI and people are worried about where we are heading with this and people are wondering where we are heading with this.”

She continued: “I just want to flag a positive use of AI because I am a patron of Motor Neurone Disease Association and this one caught my eye. There is a lady called Sarah Ezekiel, now she has motor neurone disease and one of the hardest things for people with motor neurone disease is losing your voice.

“And by the power of AI her voice has been replicated after finding a small video clip and they managed to use AI and this is the voice that it gave her.”

The show then cut over to an emotional clip of Sarah using her voice. The moment left Charlotte feeling ‘really emotional’ as she opened up on her own family battle with MND.

Fighting back tears, Charlotte admitted: “I feel really emotional because my dad lost his voice and that is one of the hardest things with people with MND, when you can’t hear your fathers voice anymore.”

She added: “I know for her children, they couldn’t remember what her voice sounded like so actually to be able to hear your mum's voice like that must have been so special. It’s amazing, I am so pleased for her.”

The Good Morning Britain star previously revealed that her dad died just one month before her longed-for daughter Ella Rose was born.

At the time, she said that she was forever "thankful" that he got to find out she was expecting her daughter before his "horrific" death.

Charlotte now campaigns to raise awareness of the condition and is a patron of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, whose new campaign aims to make their support funds easier to access.

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX