Body of British TV host Michael Mosley found on Greek island

Michael Mosley had set off on a walk in a mountainous area in Greece on Wednesday afternoon.

The body of British television presenter Michael Mosley has been found on a Greek island after a days-long search, his family has said.

A police spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press news agency that the body was found on a rocky coast by a private boat on Sunday 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 could not easily be seen. The 67-year-old went missing on the island of Symi on Wednesday afternoon.

“Michael was an adventurous man, it’s part of what made him so special,” 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.”

Lefteris Papakalodoukas, the island’s mayor who was on a boat with media representatives looking for Mosley on Sunday, told the AP they saw a body some 20 metres (65 feet) above the Agia Marina beach. “We zoomed with the cameras and saw it was him,” he said.

The mayor said the deceased appeared to have fallen down a steep slope, stopping against a fence and lying face-up with a few rocks on top of it. The body had a leather bag in one hand, said Antonis Mystiloglou, a cameraman with state TV ERT, who was also on the boat.

Mosley is best known for a string of British television programmes, including the BBC series Trust Me, I’m a Doctor and a number of documentaries about diet and exercise, including the Channel 4 show Michael Mosley: Who Made Britain Fat?.

Mosley, who studied medicine in London, also made radio appearances and was a columnist in the Daily Mail newspaper.

Outside the United Kingdom, for his 2013 book The Fast Diet, he proposed the so-called “5:2 diet” to help people lose weight quickly by minimising their calorie intake two days a week.

He also lived with tapeworms in his guts for six weeks for the BBC documentary Infested! Living With Parasites.