A Place In The Sun presenter Jonnie Irwin has claimed that bosses of the show axed him after he told them he had terminal cancer.
The 49-year-old has said that his contract wasn't renewed and he was "paid off" when he was diagnosed in the middle of the series - with show bosses saying they couldn't get the proper insurance. The father-of-three has said he was completely devastated by the loss of his job.
Earlier this month, Jonnie revealed that in 2020, he had been given just six months left to live after his lung cancer had spread to his brain. He first noticed something wasn't right when he was filming A Place In The Sun in August 2020 in Italy when his vision became blurry while he was driving. His wife urged him to go to the doctor and one week from filming in Italy, he was given the terminal diagnosis.
Speaking to The Sun, Jonnie claimed that after he revealed his diagnosis to bosses, he was axed from the show.
Breaking down in tears, he said: "As soon as people find out you’ve got cancer, they write you off. Yes, I have stage four and it’s terminal — but not yet, so let me live my life while I can.
“As soon as I told A Place In The Sun about my diagnosis, they paid me for the rest of the season but didn’t renew my contract. They knew I wanted to carry on. That hurt. That broke my heart. I feel hugely let down. I can’t even watch the show now.”
Jonnie continued to work through his chemotherapy treatment and filmed BBC's Escape To The Country while working on other projects.
He revealed that he kept his cancer secret because he was worried about losing anymore work and he needed to keep a roof over the heads of his children - three-year-old son Rex and two-year-old twins Cormac and Rafa - and wife Jessica.
Jonnie said his work is "really important" to him, he explained that it stops him from thinking about the cancer and that every penny he earns now is for his children's future.
“Even though I look thinner and I’m without hair, Escape to the Country and A Place In The Sun Ltd, which runs the show’s exhibitions, have employed me and I’ve been so impressed by them," he said.
"But I didn’t get that support from A Place In The Sun. I told them I wanted to work. When I said I can get you doctor notes and assurances from my oncologist that I am fit to work, I was told, verbatim, ‘Oh, you really don’t want to go down that route, do you?’
“They said, ‘We don’t think we can get the insurance’, not ‘We can’t get the insurance’, but, ‘We don’t think . . . ’ That broke my heart and affected my mental health."
He went on to say that "within weeks" someone else was doing his job and he felt that he "earned a bit more from them after 18 years".
A Place In The Sun reps have been contacted for comment.
Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily Showbiz newsletter here .
