Wayne Mardle has spoken openly about the grief that continues to shape his life in the fourteen months since the death of his wife Donna, while making clear that his commitment to broadcasting — and to Sky Sports in particular — remains firmly intact.
The Sky Sports commentator posted a candid TikTok video this weekend in which he reflected on the reality of life after loss, describing the experience as “absolutely brutal” and pushing back on the idea that grief follows any kind of predictable, linear path. “It is a process, so I’m told, and you go through stages,” he said. “You don’t go through stages. You go through phases, there’s a phase and then there’s another phase. Before you know it that phase is returning — it doesn’t work that way.”
Donna Mardle passed away on December 11, 2024, after a short illness, aged 52. The couple had been married for 22 years. Her death was announced on air at the opening night of the 2025 World Darts Championship, with a visibly emotional Sky Sports presenter Emma Paton telling viewers: “Wayne is the heart and soul of everything we do here at Sky Sports darts, but the heart of his world, his wonderful wife Donna, sadly passed away earlier this week after a short illness.” Mardle missed the entire World Championship that year. He returned to his commentary duties in February 2025 when the Premier League resumed in Belfast, reappearing at Sky Sports without any prior announcement — much to the surprise and delight of viewers who had missed his presence.
He has since been a consistent part of Sky Sports’ coverage, including the 2026 World Championship and the ongoing Premier League season. That will continue. His contract with Sky Sports is non-exclusive, meaning it encompasses the World Championship and Premier League while permitting him to work for other broadcasters — a flexibility that has allowed him to take on a significant new three-year deal with ITV from January 2026. That arrangement covers events including the UK Open, European Championship, World Masters, Players Championship Finals and the World Series of Darts Finals, with Mardle leading ITV’s revamped punditry team alongside Glen Durrant, Mark Webster, Chris Mason and commentator Dan Dawson.
For Sky Sports viewers, though, the reassurance is straightforward: the most recognisable voice in darts remains exactly where they expect to find him for the sport’s biggest occasions. The World Championship and Premier League, the two centrepieces of Sky’s darts calendar, are where Mardle will continue to be heard.
In his TikTok video, he touched on where he is personally — candid about the days that still knock him sideways, and about the habits that grief has quietly changed. He mentioned that he had stopped visiting Donna’s graveside daily, something he had done religiously in the immediate aftermath of her death, but had not been back since Christmas Day. “I don’t feel guilty,” he said. “I just feel like I can’t do it because it beats me, beats me every time I go over there. You have a millisecond off of forgetting, right. That’s about it.”
The overarching message was directed at others in similar situations — a reminder that there is no correct way to grieve, no timetable to adhere to, and no obligation to justify the way you process loss to people who have not lived it. “The people who question you are not your friends, they’re not your family. They have a perception of grief — it’s incorrect. Don’t overthink it, please don’t. I hope tomorrow is better than today.”
Mardle has been part of Sky Sports’ darts commentary team since 2011, when he retired from professional play and made his broadcast debut at the PDC World Championship. In the years since, he has become the defining voice of the sport on British television — most memorably for his commentary of Michael Smith’s nine-dart finish in the 2023 World Championship final against Michael van Gerwen, a moment so viscerally captured — “I can’t speak, I can’t speak” — that it remains one of the most shared clips in sport broadcasting history.
That voice, and the warmth behind it, is going nowhere.
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