Joe Duggan (Reporter)
FREDDIE Starr has revealed he is ‘shaking hands with the devil’ as his life unravels.
The faded comic cut a shambolic figure when the Olive Press caught up with him at his La Cala Hills bolthole as he showed the scars on his chest from his quadruple bypass operation.
And as the depressed former star poured his heart out about his poor health, court battles and spent fortune, he revealed he has not run away to Spain, but is trying to put together the pieces of his shattered life.
Admitting he was suicidal, Starr said: “I’m very down. I’ve been up there and I’ve shook hands with God and I’ve come down here and I’ve shook hands with the devil.
“I have had a quadruple bypass. I always come out here, it wasn’t a matter of planning anything.
“I didn’t run away because of the court case. If you haven’t got socks, you can’t pull them up. I’ve got no money.
“I used to be the biggest paid person in Britain for 15 years but all of a sudden it has stopped.
“I feel sorry for Karin Ward and her brief because I knew that going to court if I lost or won the case, I couldn’t have paid her.”
An emotional Starr recalled his last appearance on stage and the moment he realised that the curtain on his career had finally fallen.
“I was trying to get back to work in my wheelchair I had the oxygen bottles on the back of my wheelchair and I was fighting for my breath.
“They said ‘Freddie Starr’ and I knew as soon as I walked on that I was in trouble medically.
“I said, ‘Sorry ladies and gentlemen, you have paid good money but I just can’t perform’.
“They understood and gave me a round of applause and I said ‘I’m awfully sorry. This is the last time you will ever see me on stage.'”
Starr, who was driving a silver Mercedes, moved in to his gated property in the Malaga hills around two months ago.
Locals said he was often seen in the bars around the La Cala Hills complex.
