This Morning host Cat Deeley became tearful on air as she was surprised with a personalised poem marking her 48th birthday.

British poet Pam Ayres, known for her witty, consoling rhymes on life’s experiences, read out a piece she had written for Deeley on the morning programme.

Wednesday’s show opened on ITV with co-host Ben Shephard presenting Deeley with a caterpillar-shaped chocolate cake with a photo of her face.

Deeley said her family had woken with her at 5.30am to give her birthday cards.

Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard posing together on a red carpet
Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard host This Morning (Ian West/PA)

“I got up at 5.30, there were cards made,” she said.

“There was one where we were all swimming underwater and they’d made it.

“It said, ‘take a deep breath, mum, you’re getting old’. They thought it was the funniest thing on the planet.”

Later in the show Deeley thanked Ayres for reading her the poem.

She said: “Thank-you so, so much and I’m so glad that you read it for me as well because it’s (her poems) so intrinsically part of my childhood.”

Ayres, 77, said: “I don’t like other people reading my poems. No, I don’t, I want to get them by the throat and say, ‘You’re doing it all wrong, give it back’.

Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty smiling
Deeley is married to Patrick Kielty (Damien Eagers/PA)

“I don’t know, some people just don’t see how it’s supposed to bounce along. So I was glad to do it myself.”

Shephard and Deeley presented their first show as the new permanent presenters of This Morning in March.

The duo took over from Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, who co-hosted ITV1’s flagship morning programme together for 14 years before they both left in 2023.

Deeley, who is married to Irish chat show host Patrick Kielty, rose to fame as a presenter of Saturday morning ITV children’s programme SM:TV Live alongside Ant and Dec, and its spin-off music programme CD:UK with Willoughby.

She is also known for hosting ITV’s Stars In Their Eyes, the BBC’s Fame Academy and American competition show So You Think You Can Dance, which she presented for more than a decade.