NEIGHBOURS legend Takaya Honda has opened up about losing his mum just days before he filmed his final scenes on the soap.
Fans of the Amazon Freevee show were left stunned when the soap icon was suddenly killed off in a brutal clifftop death.
Actor Takaya, 36, has now opened up on the real-life tragedy that he was dealing with at the same time as filming his harrowing death scenes.
In a video message to his fans, shared exclusively with The Sun, Takaya spoke openly about his mum's battle with Alzheimer's and how he dealt with the grief of losing both his on-screen character and his real-life mum in a short space of time.
Takaya opened the clip by saying: "I just want to send a massive thank you to all the fans out there for their love and support, not only of David and myself but for the show as well - without you, there is no Neighbours!"
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Getting candid, the acting heartthrob went on to say: "Now, some of you may know, last year my mum passed away.
"She'd lived with early on-set Alzheimer's for about 15 years but none of you know that she passed away a couple of days after I'd filmed what would be David's final on-air scenes.
"In the lead-up to that scene, I'd already been experiencing a weird kind of grief, a grief for David and it made me think a lot about my mum because she'd never really gotten to watch me on Neighbours.
"Her Alzheimer's had progressed to a point that by the time I was cast, she wasn't able to watch it."
Takaya continued: "She had been non-verbal for a few years, she hadn't been able to communicate with us so I felt like the timing of her passing was actually the only way she could communicate.
"A couple of days later, after her passing, I was back on set filming David dead on a slab.
"In a weird flip of reality where everyone was breathing over me and that was a reverse of what I had just experienced."
In the scenes, a huge fight broke out between Eden and Leo that saw Eden attempt to kill David's brother by smashing a rock over his head.
David threw himself to intervene as he battled with Eden before the pair tumbled over the cliffside.
He later convinced everyone to help Eden receive medical treatment first in order to allow him to survive but by the time they had returned to David, he had sadly passed away.
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Fans were left flooding X - formerly Twitter - with their comments of shock and sadness that the soap superstar had been killed off for good without a prior warning.
In his video message to fans, Takaya finished up by saying he would "dedicate David to his mum," as he called on fans to reach out to family members and keep close bonds with them.
He also appeared to hint that even thought he had been killed off, he could not rule out a return.
Takaya said: "Thank you and goodbye, for now - I mean, who knows, it's Neighbours!"
