‘I felt so responsible’: Jonny Irwin talks candidly about heartbreaking cancer diagnosis

‘A Place In The Sun’ presenter says he doesn’t know ‘how long’ he has left

TV presenter Jonnie Irwin announced his terminal cancer diagnosis last month.

Irwin, known for hosting Channel 4’s A Place In The Sun and BBC’s Escape To The Country, has since made a number of public comments about his illness and how it is affecting him and his family.

The 49-year-old shares three-year-old son Rex and two-year-old twins Rafa and Cormac with his wife Jessica.

Here’s everything Irwin has said about his diagnosis so far.

Irwin announces he has terminal cancer

In an exclusive interview with Hello! Magazine published 14 November, Irwin said he’d decided to come public about his illness after learning that his lung cancer had spread to his brain.

Jonnie Irwin and his family (Hola/PA)

“I don’t know how long I have,” he told the publication.

He said he first realised something was wrong in August 2020 when he experienced blurry vision while filming A Place in the Sun. “Within a week of flying back from filming” he said he was “given six months to live”.

“I had to go home and tell my wife, who was looking after our babies, that she was on her own pretty much,” he said, adding: “That was devastating. All I could do was apologise to her. I felt so responsible.”

He says he hasn’t told his children

Elsewhere in the Hello! interview, Irwin was asked whether he had told his children that their father didn’t have long left.

“He doesn’t need to know yet,” Irwin responded in reference to his eldest son.

“We make fun of my hair – he calls it my ‘spiky head’ – but as far as he’s concerned, his dad is normal and why would I shatter that innocence?”

Irwin added that he wants to do as much as he can with his family in the time he has left.

“I want to make memories and capture these moments with my family because the reality is, my boys are going to grow up not knowing their dad and that breaks my heart.”

Irwin claims he was fired by Channel 4 due to his diagnosis

In a 23 November interview with The Sun, The TV star alleged that Channel 4 “pushed him aside for someone healthier” on A Place in the Sun.

“When I said I can get you doctor notes and assurances from my oncologist that I am fit to work, I was told, verbatim, ‘Oh, you really don’t want to go down that route, do you?’”

Irwin continued: “They said, ‘We don’t think we can get the insurance,’ not ‘We can’t get the insurance,’ but, ‘We don’t think…’ That broke my heart and affected my mental health.”

Just two weeks later, “someone else was on TV doing my job”, Irwin said, adding: “I just feel I’d earned a bit more from them after 18 years.”

Representatives for the show told the publication: “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.”

He worries his young children ‘won’t remember’ him

Also in The Sun interview, Irwin expressed his fears about his children forgetting him if he died this year.

“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’,” he said.

“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.”

Irwin continued: “Someone else is probably going to bring them up. I’ve done the hard yards with them and someone else will get the easy bit.”

Irwin implores people to stop ‘mollycoddling’ people with cancer

In an appearance on BBC chat show Morning Live on Thursday (15 December), Irwin said people began making decisions for him when they heard he had cancer, deciding not to invite him to events because of his diagnosis.

“We don’t need mollycoddling,” he said. “We are normal human beings, as normal as it gets. So treat us as you would do two years ago.

“We’re normal human beings the same as everyone else and we want the same opportunities for fun and living as everybody else gets.”