TOWIE’s Mick Norcross beams next to son Kirk in haunting last picture

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Mick Norcross was seen beaming next to his son Kirk in the final picture of the TOWIE star taken three weeks before he was found dead aged 57 as TOWIE stars suggested he was battling a bout of depression before he died.

The Sugar Hut owner, property developer and reality star, who rose to fame as the man behind the nightclub on the hit ITV2 series, was discovered at his mansion in Bulphan, Essex, by emergency services on Thursday afternoon. 

In a tragic final tweet, posted just hours before his body was found yesterday, he wrote: ‘At the end remind yourself that you did the best you could. And that is good enough.’ 

Mick had sold the Sugar Hut nightclub in 2019 and concentrated on his property businesses. Before his death he was developing the famous Grand Hotel in Leigh-on-Sea into 18 luxury flats. He was also building five houses in Bulphan where he lived in a mansion he had also built and designed himself. He also had an antiques business.

His money appears to have been tied up in businesses and projects that will have inevitably been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, but it is not known if he was in a financially precarious position before he died.

Twice-married Mick was romantically linked to a number of TOWIE stars including Chloe Sims and Gemma Collins, before finding love with his former Sugar Hut Honey, Samantha Keahey, who went on to become the nightclub brand’s office. Mick and Samantha were last seen together in early December is a series of Instagram photos that appeared to be in his mansion’s garden. 

He previously admitted having having struggles with mental health and his tendency to erect a ‘hard exterior’ when the going got tough and struggling to talk to family about problems without it ‘turning into a shouting match’.

Former TOWIE co-stars Mark Wright and Mario Falcone hinted they feared that Mick was battling depression, which has increased markedly, especially amongst men, during repeated national lockdowns. 

Essex Police have not confirmed the cause of Mick’s death, or if it was suicide, but said it was not being treated as suspicious. 

Mr Wright tweeted: ‘Such a gent. We lost a good one. Let this be ANOTHER reason to check in on people and ask if they are ok. It’s imperative we talk. Love to Kirk and the rest of the family. such sad news.’ 

Mario wrote on Instagram: ‘When I went through my battle with depression and suicide you were the only one from the whole show that reached out and cared about me. You were someone I looked up to and held in the highest regard. The thought of you going through the same pain and emotional darkness I did breaks my heart’.  Gemma Collins said: ‘You never know what someone is going through’. 

Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, an Essex boy and friend of Mick’s paid tribute to his ‘gentleman’ friend and another pal who recently died. He tweeted: ‘Two men I know have taken their lives in the last few days. Please if you are struggling, talk to someone close to you’, before sharing phone numbers for mental health charities Mind, Samaritans and The Calm Zone.

On January 4, Kirk, 32, shared a selfie on Facebook showing him sitting alongside his grinning father, adding the caption: ‘Me and the big man’, with a heart emoji.  Mick is survived by his sons Kirk, Mason, Daniel and daughter Hollie. He also has three grandchildren. 

In an episode of the programme in 2011, Mick referenced his mental health in a conversation with Kirk, saying: ‘Maybe there’s bits of my life where I haven’t been there for you so it’s hard for me to see where I’m going wrong…

‘I wasn’t there enough for you growing up but I want you to know I’m here for you now. I want to do the things we didn’t do and still can do. I’m quite a hard person and it’s difficult for me to show my emotions and that’s not me making an excuses and it doesn’t mean I don’t love you and I don’t want you around me.

‘I just put this hard exterior up sometimes. Any time you get upset let’s not end up having a shouting match over it. Talk to me. With women, that’s where I push buttons. Unfortunately in what I do, I am surrounded by women from 20 years of age to 35 years of age.’ 

When Kirk voiced concerns over women taking advantage of Mick, he went on: ‘Really Kirk it’s not your decision, with me you might think I’m having a great time and that but every night I come to this house on my own, I live on my own, it’s empty, it’s nothing.’ 

On Thursday, Mick sent shockwaves around the TV world when news arose of his passing, and while Kirk has so far remained silent, the haunting last picture has emerged. 

As well as pictures with Kirk, Mick’s girlfriend Samantha Keahey shared a number of shots of the couple last year, including sweet images taken last month. 

Mick is survived by his sons Kirk, Mason, Daniel and daughter Hollie. He also has three grandchildren.  The star made his TOWIE debut in 2011 during the show’s second season, while son Kirk was part of the original cast. 

The businessman was introduced as the owner of Sugar Hut, a nightclub in Brentwood which was a popular filming location for the show. During his time on the show, Mick caught the attention of Gemma Collins, 39, who soon developed a crush on him. 

One of his most notable storylines was when, at a pool party for the second series finale, Gemma was convinced Mick was bringing a bottle of champagne over to her, but was instead snubbed when the Sugar Hut owner walked past her and presented the bubbly to Lauren Goodger’s sister Nicola.

Gemma led the tributes, writing on Instagram: ‘ALWAYS A GENTLEMAN. Absolutely shocked and saddened by the news. My thoughts and prayers are going out to Kirk family and friends absolutely tragic #ripmicknorcross 

‘The memories of the early days the sugar hut and the wonderful filming parties you put on will never be forgotten. You never know what someone is going through you was [sic] one of the good guys.’

An Essex Police spokesman told MailOnline: ‘We were called to an address in Bulphan shortly before 3.15pm on Thursday 21 January. Sadly, a man inside was pronounced dead. His death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner.’ 

Tributes from the property developer’s TOWIE co-stars and celebrity friends were soon posted in response to Mick’s heartbreaking final tweet.  

TOWIE veteran James Argent called the property developer: ‘A true gentleman & a very kind man’. James, 33, wrote: ‘RIP Mick. Many amazing memories, So Sad! My thoughts are with his family.’

Mario Falcone, who starred on the show between 2011 to 2018 posted a broken heart emoji, as did Elliott Wright, who appeared on TOWIE between 2010 and 2017. 

Jamie Reed, who had a brief stint on the reality series, chimed: ‘Very sad. RIP’.  

EOTB star Jess Impiazzi, who was one of Mick’s original ‘Sugar Hut Honeys’ – a group of hostesses in the club – typed: ‘Please don’t ever feel like no one is there or wants to listen, you matter! You’re loved!…And the world is better with you in it. There is always light at the end of the tunnel! I promise.’ 

Mick sold Sugar Hut in 2019, having previously gone on to develop a property portfolio, including The Grand Hotel in Leigh. The businessman shelled out £4.3m for the site back in 2011 and dreamed of turning the derelict building into a boutique hotel,restaurant and spa.

However, despite extensive renovation, restoration work took longer than planned and the hotel is still yet to open.  The same year Mick bought the hotel, he put his £3.4million converted farmhouse up for sale. The mansion, which was also a regular filming location during his time, was the envy of TOWIE viewers.

The estate also boasted a private house where Kirk lived with his girlfriend at the time Lauren Pope, a hot tub and plasma screen TVs.  After putting up the house on sale, Mick said, ‘I’ve been here six years and I’ve completely refurbished this place. Now I’m ready to move on to another project.’

Mick made a hefty profit for £2.2million after buying the house in 2005 for £1.2million.   

It is the first tragedy to strike the TOWIE cast since Patricia Brooker, known as Nanny Pat, died aged 80 in 2015.  

Reality TV has been hit with a number of tragic young deaths in recent years, including perhaps most notably, Love Island host Caroline Flack, who took her own life at her north-east London home last February aged 40. 

Before that, the programme was rocked by the death of Mike Thalassitis, who hanged himself in a park after an alcohol and cocaine binge aged just 26, an inquest was told in 2019. 

A decade earlier, there was widespread mourning over the death of Big Brother’s Jade Goody, who died of cervical cancer at 27, after being hailed for her work in raising awareness and encouraging women to get checked.

Reliving the famous scene with Gemma Collins, Mick previously said he regretted reducing the boutique owner to tears in an interview with The Sun that year.

He said at the time: ‘I had no idea that Gemma was so upset. I think someone may have told her I was going to come over to her rather than Nicola. But I never meant to hurt her. I hate the thought of upsetting anyone.’ 

Mick went on to have a brief romance with Maria Fowler, who also starred on the show and was 13 years his junior.   He quit TOWIE in 2013, after being left furious the nightclub was being used a battleground on the show. 

Sugar Hut became known for its high-publicised feuds on the show with huge rows between central characters such as Mark Wright and Lauren Goodger, as well as former on-off couple Chloe Sims and Mark’s cousin Elliott. 

He told The Sun at the time of his departure: ‘My club is an upmarket venue where people come to drink champagne and feel spoiled. All these rows they keep filming don’t show the club in a good light and I’m worried it’s putting people off coming, which is the last thing I want.’

Mick described his time on TOWIE as ‘very demanding’ and ‘what it did to me as a person was quite a strange thing’ as he struggled from being ‘somebody nobody really knows’ to ‘a household name so to speak’.

He said during an interview with Echo News about why he joined TOWIE in 2018 that ‘it was a decision I took just to try to manoeuvre the business – the Sugar Hut – in the right way, I needed it to be portrayed in the right light and being part of the show that was the only way I could do that.’

Mick added: ‘I didn’t want them to just come and ride roughshod over the business and portray it how they wanted, people having fights in the club and what have you. 

‘That would never be right and even the relationship with my son, I needed that to come across right. But it got to the stage where it really wasn’t where I needed to be in life.’