Presenter Gerty Christoffels (62) died

Gerty was hired by the then BRT in 1984. She presented there, among other things Bouquet of Flanders, her first program, which immediately became extremely popular.

Gerty herself never expected that she would be chosen for the job. “All those candidates looked so sophisticated. I thought: Christopher, take your sjakosj and go back to Limburg. You don’t belong here, ”she later told Radio 2. Yet the BRT saw in her the perfect face for the show. Christoffels eventually made television for 25 years.

VTM

She was also featured in Christopher’s egg in Personal upgrade. She even interviewed Bill Gates for the latter program. Later Gerty became a familiar face The three wise men. There she served as the so-called ‘target’ of Walter Grootaers and Jacques Vermeire.

In 1995 she switched to VTM. She could be seen in that Nice at home, Green fingers (as Mark Demesmaeker’s predecessor). When her contract with VTM was not renewed, she decided to become self-employed. “I provide training in presentation and communication techniques”, she explained in 2015. “It was a logical consequence of the many questions that were received. I have been making TV for almost 25 years and people have asked me if I could ‘teach them to present’. It was not a big step to become independent, I had that status for a long time. ”

‘An enormous loss’

“I have been in contact with her until a few days ago,” said Jacques Vermeire. “In recent years we have toured with the old ‘Three Wise Men’. Every now and then we also went out for dinner. The last two months I have been on the phone with her on a weekly basis, until last week, when she could barely speak … We have all seen it coming, but it remains dramatic of course. ”

“I will always remember her as a great friend. “The Three Wise Men” was at the very beginning of my career, and Gerty had something special. She was also just a great person, we also got along well on a private level. She was very sweet, very thoughtful, and always good at her role. We always had to ‘catch’ her in ‘De Drie Wijzen’, that was her idea. That was her position in the program, she said. But it was also someone you always had great conversations with. A great talent and a huge loss. ”

In 2017 Gerty was also featured in How shall I put it. Watch that clip below.