Kym devastated by David Gest's death

The Ashton-born star is to do a special reading at David’s funeral, which is reported to be taking place in York.

As a tribute to her pal, who often referred to her as his “little sister”, after meeting seven years ago, she tweeted: “I will miss you my wonderful friend. Sleep tight’ along with a poem.

She revealed she was busy filming an emotional scene for Coronation Street when she received the news from her mum, Pauline.

She wrote in her OK! column: “I started getting all these phone calls from random people and couldn’t understand why, and then I finally to a message from my mum, saying ‘David has been found dead in his hotel room,’ and I just thought it was a horrible joke.

“I still feel numb - I haven’t processed it properly.

“David was the sweetest, most generous person you could ever meet. I always referred to him as ‘wonderfully weird.’

“He would ring me up at all hours and have these ridiculous conversations with me and tell me silly jokes. He wanted to make people laugh and he wanted people to like him. Anyone who met him said what an amazing guy he was.

“The last time I spoke to him was a couple of weeks ago and he was talking about his future plans.

“I hadn’t seen him for a while but I loved him and he knows I loved him.

“His death has devastated a lot of people. I will miss him terribly. There is a huge David-sized hole in my life.”

Kym, who was due to join him at the end of his David Gest Is Not Dead But Alive With Soul Tour for a party and charity auction, said she was unhappy about negative stories surrounding his gambling habit: “I don’t believed it. I think David was a wonderful man and I don’t think we should be looking at his flaws at this time.”

David died on Tuesday April 12 in a hotel room alone. Friends have claimed that he was “strung out” on sleeping pills in recent weeks, and he had been on steroids to treat pneumonia.

Police said is death was being treated as non-suspicious.