Cat Deeley was in tears on This Morning when Ben Shephard surprised her with a very special birthday message from poet Pam Ayres

Cat Deeley was moved to tears on This Morning when co-host Ben Shephard surprised her with a birthday tribute.

The TV presenter was visibly emotional when Ben presented a video message from poet Pam Ayres, who had written a special poem just for Cat.

Overwhelmed by the surprise, Cat confessed that the gesture meant a lot to her as Pam was a significant part of her childhood. As she wiped away her tears, Ben comforted her with a supportive hand squeeze before they continued with the show.

The surprises didn’t stop there, as Ben kicked off the show by presenting Cat with a Colin the Caterpillar cake featuring her face. “Look at this cake, it looks a bit odd,” he commented, as the camera zoomed in on the personalised cake.

“If it’s your birthday, you get the face!” Cat responded enthusiastically, sharing her birthday plans. “Everyone was up This Morning and excited as I got up at 5.30. There were cards made, there was one where we were all swimming underwater and they had made it and it said ‘take a deep breath mum, you’re getting old’. They thought it was the funniest thing on the planet.”

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Cat also got her own cake! (Image: ITV)

Ben then asked Cat about her age, to which she replied: “48!” Ben jokingly responded: “You don’t look a day over 47! You look amazing. I think any opportunity to celebrate birthdays is very important. But also, we’ve got the amazing Pam Ayres on the show later. So what we asked Pam to do is write you a poem for your birthday and she has written a poem for Cat Deeley.”

They then switched to a heartfelt video of Pat reciting her bespoke poem for Cat, saying: “We mustn’t forget people’s birthdays – the one day in all of the year for making somebody feel special, and those far away to feel dear.

Ben surprised Cat with a poem from Pam Ayres (Image: ITV)“To get out of bed in the morning to see all the cards on the mat, from all of the folk who remembered, well that’s nice – well you can ask Cat! No we mustn’t forget people’s birthdays, that is the wrong thing to do. So with speed uppermost, pop a card in the post, and then they might send one to you.”

Cat was emotionally overwhelmed by the thoughtful gesture, declaring through tears, “That’s so amazing. We were talking about this this morning. She’s part of my childhood! You wouldn’t even see her and you’d know exactly who she was!”