Sarah Beeny has told how she kept her cancer diagnosis from her husband and kids because she “needed to handle it in [her] own head before telling them”.
The entrepreneur, 50 - who is known for fronting property development shows like Property Ladder - announced in August that she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The presenter - who began chemotherapy a few months ago - cut off some of her hair prior to treatment and has since embraced going bald.
The telly favourite appeared on Loose Women to discuss her diagnoses with the panel.
She told how she had received her diagnosis 40 years after she lost her mum to the same disease when she was 10 years old and her mum just 39.
Sarah heartbreakingly told the ITV show: “I’ve waited my whole life for this diagnosis. I always expected it.”
She got regular checks all through her 20s and paid after the scheme shut down to have regular checks privately.
She told how she had recently had her standard age 50 mammogram but went back for another check after finding a lump.
“I hit 50 and I was diagnosed and was like ‘oh, here it is’. It was waiting for me,” Sarah said, telling how her mum’s diagnosis and death had haunted her since childhood and she’d always just “assumed” she’d get it.
“Trust your own body, go back again if you have a lump,” she advised viewers and the audience.
The property developer told how she went to her diagnosis appointment alone and waiting before telling her family.
The mum-of-four said: “I needed to handle it in my own head before telling them.”
Sarah recently spoke about having shaved her head after being diagnosed with cancer, saying that she now wants to challenge shame that's associated with baldness.
Sarah recently told how she’s keen to "change [the] stereotype" around baldness, saying people can feel "ashamed" or be perceived as "victims" - though she wants to challenge such ideas.
Speaking to the Daily Mail 's Weekend magazine, she said people with no hair are often seen as "victims" and added that cancer patients are often "ashamed" to go bald.
Sarah said a lack of hair can be associated with victimhood and punishment, citing examples like Fantine in Les Misérables and Game of Thrones' Cersei Lannister.
She said: "People are ashamed of their bald heads. [...] Why? If you've got breast cancer and you're having treatment, the fact you have no hair is not a reason to be ashamed".
Sarah - who debuted her shaved head in photos for the outlet - said: "I don't want to be ashamed. I don't want other people to feel ashamed. I want to change that stereotype."
She had initially cut her hair short with the help of her sons Billy, 18, Charlie, 16, Raffey 14, and Laurie, 13. She posted about the experience on Instagram back in August.
She announced that she had donated her locks to charity the Little Princess Trust, which provides real hair wigs to children and young people who have lost their hair.
Just a few weeks later, Sarah revealed on the social media platform that she had shaved her head after her hair began to fall out in clumps amid chemotherapy.
Discussing the experience with Weekend magazine, she said that it was "really traumatic" when her hair began to fall out after she had started the treatment following her diagnosis.
She recalled that she cried over it and said that she ended up shaving her head shortly afterwards. She has since tattooed her eyebrows in case they fall out in the future.
Sarah - who now has a collection of wigs at home - said that her cancer is fast growing, but explained that there is no evidence that it has spread to her lymph nodes.
And she is said to have been keeping busy with various projects, including working on a new book about her life as well as a Channel 4 documentary about her cancer.
