Presenter Jamie Theakston has revealed he has cancer.
The Heart Radio DJ announced the news in a post on Instagram, saying he recently had an operation to remove a lesion from his vocal cords.
He had sought medical attention after concerned fans contacted him to say they’d noticed a change in his voice.
The 53-year-old wrote: “The biopsy has identified this as Stage 1 Laryngeal Cancer.
“So… I have cancer… but cancer doesn’t have me!
“The prognosis is very positive and I’m hoping to be back with you in October.”
He signed off his post: “Be thankful for this day, and when I see you next I’ll have a great story to tell… Jamie x”.
Theakston’s radio co-host Amanda Holden posted a photograph of the pair together on Instagram.
She wrote: “Our wonderful @jamie.theakston has been diagnosed with stage 1 laryngeal cancer. His prognosis is very good and he has an incredible team around him.
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“Jamie. We love and miss you and look forward to seeing you very soon. With @sophietheakstonjewellery, your gorgeous boys, Us and the entire nation with you… YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS.”
‘Love you to bits’
Holden gave an update on Theakston’s health on their breakfast show on Monday morning, telling listeners she wanted to bring them “completely up to speed with what’s going on”.
Presenter Jason King, known as JK, and who normally co-hosts with Kelly Brook, is standing in to cover Theakston while he recovers.
She went on to say, “it is not all bad news,” and that Theakston had asked them to “hold the fort” while he was away, and they would “do him proud”.
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Amanda Holden on co-host’s cancer diagnosis
Theakston has been presenting for Heart for 19 years and has been alongside Holden on the breakfast show for five years after Holden replaced Spice Girl Emma Bunton in the summer of 2019.
Bunton was one of the stars who quickly shared her support, writing: “Love you to bits” followed by a heart emoji.
Presenter and author Carol Vorderman also commented on Theakston’s post, saying: “Sending best Jamie. Thank goodness your listeners spotted the change in your voice, all found early and you’ll be back keeping everyone happy very soon.”
Celebrity TV chef Jamie Oliver wrote: “Big love brother you got this sending love xxx.”
TV and radio presenter Lisa Snowdon posted: “Sending lots of love Jamie.”
Presenter Kirsty Gallacher wrote: “Oh Jamie sending so much love and speedy recovery.”
While comedian Leigh Francis, best known as his alter ego Keith Lemon, commented: “Sending you magical powers and positivity x.”
Listeners spotted a change
Earlier this month, Theakston revealed fans had noticed a change in his voice.
“Sooo – a few of you listeners have noticed my voice hasn’t sounded right these past few weeks – I’ve got you to thank… got it checked,” he wrote.
“Doctors found a lesion on my vocal chords which I’ve had removed this weekend.
“Thanks for all the kind messages – should be back on my feet soon.”
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Laryngeal cancer affects the larynx or voice box, and is more common in men than women, according to the NHS website. One of the symptoms can be having a hoarse voice for more than three weeks.
Stage 1 means the cancer has been caught early, and has not spread anywhere else in the body.
The NHS says laryngeal cancer can often be cured by radiotherapy or surgery to remove the cancerous cells if it’s diagnosed early enough.
Theakston rose to fame as the presenter of popular Saturday morning children’s TV show Live & Kicking, which he co-hosted alongside Zoe Ball between 1996 and 1999.
He went on to co-host Top Of The Pops and present on Radio 1. He also briefly dabbled in acting, appearing in detective show Marple, sketch show Little Britain and comedy sitcom My Family in the early 2000s.
Theakston married jewellery designer Sophie Siegle in 2007, and the couple have two sons, Sidney, 16, and Kit, 14, together.
Zayn Malik paid tribute to former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne as he kicked off his solo tour.
Payne died last month of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage” after falling from a third-floor balcony in Buenos Aires, according to a post-mortem.
Images from Leeds’s O2 Academy on Saturday showed Malik – who delayed his Stairway To The Sky tour due to Payne’s funeral on Wednesday – shared a tribute.
A message was displayed with a heart on a large blue screen behind the singer reading: “Liam Payne 1993-2024. Love you bro.”
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Rapper Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that alleges he strangled a model on the set of a music video.
Warning: This story contains details that readers may find distressing
The lawsuit alleges the musician shoved his fingers in the claimant’s mouth at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in 2010, in what it refers to as “pornographic gagging”, Sky News’ US partner network NBC News reported.
The model who brought the case – which was filed on Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York – was a background actor for another musician’s music video that Ye was guest-starring in, NBC said, citing the lawsuit.
She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the 47-year-old.
A representative for Ye was approached for comment by NBC News on Saturday.
The New York City Police Department said it took “sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors”.
The lawsuit alleges that a few hours into the shoot, the rapper arrived on set, took over control and ordered “female background actors/models, including the claimant, to line up in the hallway”.
The rapper is then believed to have “evaluated their appearances, pointed to two of the women, and then commanded them to follow him”.
The lawsuit adds the claimant, who was said to be wearing “revealing lingerie”, was uncomfortable but went with Ye to a suite which had a sofa and a camera.
When in the room, Ye is said to have ordered the production team to start playing the music, to which he did not know his lyrics and instead rambled, “rawr, rawr, rawr”.
The lawsuit claims: “Defendant West then pulled two chairs near the camera, positioned them across from each other, and instructed the claimant to sit in the chair in front of the camera.”
While stood over the model, the lawsuit clams Ye strangled her with both hands, according to NBC.
It claims he went on to “emulate forced oral sex” with his hands, with the rapper allegedly screaming: “This is art. This is f****** art. I am like Picasso.”
Universal Music Group is also named in the lawsuit as a defendant and is accused of failing to investigate the incident.
The corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment by NBC.
Jesse S Weinstein, a lawyer representing the claimant, said the woman “displayed great courage to speak out against some of the most powerful men and entities within the entertainment industry”.
Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.
In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.
The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.
Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.
“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.
“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”
Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.
But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.
Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.
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The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.
While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.
“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.
“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”
In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.
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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough
“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”
In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.
“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”
Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November