Lauren Laverne has opened up for the first time since being given the all-clear from cancer.
The Sunderland-born broadcaster, 46, announced last August that she would be taking time out after being diagnosed with cancer, but did not specify what type.
Three months later, she revealed that she had been given the “all clear” after being absent from her BBC work for around three months.
In January, she confirmed that former BBC Radio 1 presenter Nick Grimshaw would take over her 6 Music breakfast slot as she moved to mid-mornings.
Laverne did make a comeback to recording for BBC Radio 4's interview programme Desert island Discs, and BBC One talk show The One Show last year.
Now that the dust has settled, she has had a chance to reflect on her health struggles and just how far she has come.
Appearing on the cover of the May issue of Good Housekeeping, she said: “One of the really big things I’ve learned is that it’s all life. It’s all part and parcel and texture – a real life is lots of big experiences. And the truth of that is, like it or not, going through big stuff expands your emotional vocabulary.
“I’ve learned a massive amount and I hope I’m a better person now. And actually, I probably love my life more now than I did then, because I appreciate everything about it.”
Laverne said that losing her beloved mum Celia to the disease in 2022 had left her “anxious” about getting cancer herself and meant she “got tested for everything”. As a result when diagnosed, it got picked up “early on”.
She went on to recall to the publication how getting the all-clear had been an emotional experience, saying: “I think it’s only when the storm passes that you realise what you’d been holding in.
Adding that she and husband Graeme “just sat in the car and both burst into tears and cried.”
Read the full interview in Good Housekeeping’s May issue, on sale from March 27.
