Stephen Fry has revealed he has been battling prostate cancer.
The TV presenter said he underwent surgery in January to have the prostate removed and that “it all seemed to go pretty well”.
Fry, 60, shared the news in a 13 minute long video posted on his Twitter page, alongside which he wrote: “For the last 2 months I’ve been in the throes of a rather unwelcome and unexpected adventure.
“I’m sorry I haven’t felt able to talk about it till now, but here I am explaining what has been going on.”
For the last 2 months I've been in the throes of a rather unwelcome and unexpected adventure. I'm sorry I haven't felt able to talk about it till now, but here I am explaining what has been going on: https://t.co/uPorpiwstg
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) February 23, 2018
In the video, he said it was “all very personal and undignified so I might as well bite the bullet”, before explaining that he had seen his doctor in December in order to get a flu jab.
But it was later discovered that he had cancer, and that he had the prostate removed the following month.
He said: “They took the prostate out, they took 11 lymph nodes out, the various bits that were taken out were examined and it turned out I had a Gleason Score of nine after considering 10 is the maximum, it was clearly an aggressive little bugger.”
Fry, who pulled out of presenting the Bafta Film Awards this year after more than a decade, said that people have “probably been wondering why I’ve been out of the public eye”.
He added: “But I’ve been keeping my head down as much as possible because you want to get better without strangers sending you cards and letters.
“It’s a bit of a business having an operation like that, there are five holes punctured into you, it’s like being stabbed five times… to the body it’s the same traumatic effect.”