Presenter Jonnie Irwin has spoken about why he kept his terminal cancer diagnosis secret in a heart-breaking interview and why his young children still don't know. Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Thursday, November 24, he said how he and his wife and made the decision not to tell their three young children because "why would you spend your days thinking about cancer".
The 49-year-old shares three-year-old son Rex and two-year-old twins Rafa and Cormac with his wife Jessica. He said: "It has only been recently that I have considered when we are going to tell them. They are so young. I don't think there is any need to tell them. I think it would be a lot for them to get their heads around, so for now let's keep the good times roll for as long as possible.
"I try my best to put my head in the sand as much as possible. I think why bother spend your days thinking about cancer when there are other things to think about."
The broadcaster has also spoken about his children growing up not knowing him. He told The Sun: “Every time something really nice happens with them, I have this thing knocking at my door, saying, ‘Don’t get too happy because you’re not going to be around much longer’.
“Then I think they’re not going to remember me, they’re really not. They’re too young and if I die this year there’s no chance they will have memories.”
In the GMB interview, he also spoke about why he kept his diagnosis quiet. He said: "I wanted to keep it secret because professionally I didn't want to lose work but also socially and emotionally people treat you differently and start making decisions for you."
He said his reasons for going public were to "empower" others in the same position as him to say, "look I have got cancer", and to educate those without cancer about who to "treat us normally".
Earlier this month, the former A Place in the Sun presenter revealed that his lung cancer had spread to his brain and he didn't know how long he had to live. He revealed the first warning sign of his illness came while he was filming in August 2020 in Italy, when his vision became blurry while driving. “Within a week of flying back from filming, I was being given six months to live,” he said.
"I was in fear of what has happened," he told Susanna Reid and Ben Shepherd diuring the GMB interview. "When people find out you have got cancer it is a terrifying thing. I know how I felt when I heard those words.
"The word 'cancer' - if I thought if I feel like that, everybody else will feel like that. I lost some work through it. Socially and emotionally people treat you differently and people start making decisions for you. 'Didn't want to ask you because you have cancer'. If I withheld that information I felt I could live a normal life right up to about a year ago."
He revealed that he had to speak out after "certain busybodies" on social media started pointing out that he had wasn't looking well, and one person came up to him at a live exhibition and even said to him, "My wife says you are too skinny."
Adding a powerful message about how people with cancer want to be treated, he said: "We are in a lot of ways, people with disabilities but we want the same respect any human being deserves. If we are up to working, let us work. Don't make decisions for us. Treat us normally. That is why we are keeping it secret.
"The very talented actress Helen McCrory felt she had to keep it secret for all of her life, and it shouldn't be that way. We should be able to talk about our feelings, and in doing so you will benefit from so much support. We need to be better educated and adjusted to treat people like me, in my position."
In an interview with The Sun he claimed he was axed from A Place in the Sun after he told them his terminal cancer diagnosis. You can read more on that here. He said his heart was "broken" by the decision.
Channel 4 and Freeform told The Sun in a statement: "No stone was left unturned in trying to enable Jonnie to continue his international filming with us during Covid, but the production company were unable to secure adequate insurance cover for him. We, of course, understand how frustrating this must be for him at this incredibly difficult time."
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