Chris Evans, 57, reveals he’s been diagnosed with skin cancer – eight years after he was
Chris Evans has revealed he’s been diagnosed with skin cancer – eight years after being given the all-clear.
The broadcasting giant, 57, announced on his Virgin Radio show on Monday that doctors gave him the terrifying news recently after his masseuse Dee urged him to have a freckle she had noticed checked out.
Chris told listeners that it was thankfully found in the extremely early stages, doctors have said it is at ‘stage zero’ and it is ‘as treatable as cancer can possibly be’. He will undergo treatment next month.
The star, who became a huge household name in the 90s and 00s due to his popular TV shows, TFI Friday, Big Breakfast and his hellraising lifestyle, had a skin cancer scare back in 2020.
He was tested for the disease after discovering concerning marks on his body before Christmas. Prior to that, he was given the ‘all clear’ after prostate cancer scare in 2015.
Health update: Broadcasting giant Chris Evans has revealed he’s been diagnosed with skin cancer
Family: Chris shares three sons and one daughter with the professional golfer and part-time model Natasha, 38
The running enthusiast jokingly added : ‘I can’t run for a month afterwards so I’m going to do nothing but run until then. Is that ok?’
He told listeners: ‘I’ve just got to talk briefly about… you know my biopsy for the skin cancer issue. So, the best news that I got whilst I was away, was that it was a positive test. So I have tested positive for skin cancer.
‘Obviously better news would have been that it would have been negative. But the reason it’s great news is that they’ve caught it as early as possible.
‘This has only happened because Dee, this angel sent from heaven, who gives me this massage every Friday, saw this freckle on my shin and said, “do me a favour Chris, go and get that checked out”.’
‘I didn’t and then the next week, she said: “Have you been to see anyone because you just need to go. It’s probably nothing but you need to go. That doesn’t look like a normal freckle to me”.’
He continued: ‘Anyway, I went and got it tested. I ended up having an operation. So whilst we were away, the email came through and the email was “can you please call because we need to discuss your results as opposed to just all-clear”. So I was sort of ready for something.
‘But because they caught it so early, it is as treatable as cancer can possibly be, to the extent that they caught it stage zero.’
Chris also said: ‘ It is a melanoma.There’s this phrase called a malignant melanoma – you know once you get something and you find out all about it – that is a redundant phrase because if it is a melanoma it is malignant.
‘But it’s been caught so early, just so you know, that it should be completely treatable. [Treatment] will happen on the 14th of September.’
Fame and fortune: Chris became a huge household name thanks to his wild lifestyle and TV show, TFI Friday – pictured with Billie Piper in the 2000s who he later married and divorced
Step back in time: The couple were married from 2001 – 2007 and famously went on one long booze bender together
Tying-the-knot: Billie and Chris married in a secret Las Vegas ceremony at the Little Church of the West for which she wore flips flops and a sarong, with the groom in an open-necked shirt (pictured on their wedding day in 2001)
The running enthusiast jokingly added: ‘I can’t run for a month afterwards so I’m going to do nothing but run until then. Is that ok?’
There are three types of skin cancer: melanoma, basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma. While melanoma only makes up one percent of cases, it causes a vast majority of deaths.
If caught early, the cancer is relatively harmless and can quickly be removed.
Chris previously had a skin cancer scare and was tested for the disease after discovering concerning marks on his body before Christmas.
At the time, he said ‘I went and had a few marks on my body inspected by a skin expert before Christmas and she said, ‘You need to come and see me again, just because of your complexion’.’
He added that an expert told him he had ‘nothing to worry about’ but said she advised him to get checked once a year.
The presenter went on to say: ‘I’ve got a particularly big freckle on the back of my hand at the moment.’
In summer 2015, Chris received the all-clear over a recent health scare.
The radio host admitted earlier this year that he was having tests for prostate cancer but results revealed that the star is in good health.
A source to the Sunday Mirror: ‘Chris is fit as a fiddle and his problems are behind him’.
Chris told his Breakfast show at the time: ‘Thank you once again to Kenney Jones, of The Who who was diagnosed with prostate cancer a couple of years ago and since recovery has been a fundraiser and supporter of Prostate Cancer UK.
‘Prostate cancer, and colon cancer of course, are one of the most survivable forms of cancer there is, if caught early enough. It not, one of the least. It’s a fine line between life and death, happiness and tragedy.
‘And I’ve got to say I’m in the middle of a prostate issue right now! I couldn’t stop. I have not been able to stop since Christmas – peeing – or wanting to go. So I’ve gone to the doctor.
‘I’ve done all the internet stuff that you shouldn’t do, I’ve gone on the internet, scared myself half to death, then gone to see the doctor. And we really should do it the other way round. However I’m in the middle of the tests.’
TFI Friday: Chris had all the greats on his hugely popular talk show in the 90s and 00s – pictured with Noel Fielding
Wakey, wakey! The charismatic – but often close to the bone – ginger-haired, bespectacled presenter made his name presenting The Big Breakfast, and went on to hold coveted broadcasting jobs including the Radio 1 breakfast show
Iconic: Chris was paired with established broadcaster Gaby Roslin on The Big Breakfast 1992-1994
Chris continued: ‘I’ve completely changed my tune on this over the last couple of years. So there you go. If you are worried about anything just go and sort yourself out – if not for you, for your family.’
In 2011, Chris opened up about undergoing his first colonoscopy examination because of the history of cancer in his family.
Chris’ father died of colorectal cancer and his mother was a breast cancer survivor.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘I went for this routine check and they found some nasties up there, and they removed them.
‘They were pre-cancerous, not malignant – at least we don’t think so; they’ve been sent for a biopsy.
‘The doctor said the only thing I could have done wrong was not come to see him.’
Treatment: The broadcaster, 57, announced on his Virgin Radio show that doctors gave him the terrifying news but thankfully found in the extremely early stages
Chris shares three sons and one daughter with the professional golfer and part-time model Natasha, 38.
The DJ also has a daughter Jade, 34, with his former fiancée Alison Ward.
They met back in 2005 and tied the knot in 2007 after becoming golf partners at the All Star Cup celebrity tournament in Newport, Wales.
The broadcaster was previously married to pop princess turned acclaimed actress Billie Piper, 39, from May 2001 to September 2007.
Billie famously married after dating for six months, aged just 18, with the 16-year age gap between the pair sparking controversy.
Billie met Top Gear host Chris when she appeared on his TV show TFI Friday in 2000, the next day, he sent a £110,000 Ferrari filled with roses to her home (she couldn’t drive at the time).
The duo married in a secret Las Vegas ceremony at the Little Church of the West for which she wore flips flops and a sarong, with the groom in an open-necked shirt.
The wedding was attended by just six guests, with their parents not being invited to the impulsive event.
An 18-month sabbatical followed as the couple travelled the world, before settling at Chris’ country estate in Hascombe, Surrey.
Ill-fated: Chris took over the helm of Top Gear, but quits after one series – presenters (left to right) Rory Reid, Chris Evans, Matt LeBlanc, Sabine Schmitz and Chris Harris (pictured in 2016)
The couple split three years later in 2004 and the divorce was finalised in 2007, they remained on good terms with Billie likening the marriage ‘to being in your university years’.
She did not request a single penny of his estimated £30million fortune, and although citing irreconcilable differences on their divorce papers, they remained close afterwards.
Billie previously recalled how she got ‘completely hammered for three years’ with her ex-husband when she was feeling burnt out from her teen pop career.
Speaking on David Tennant Does A Podcast With… in 2020, Billie said she had an ‘amazing time’ with Chris and described the relationship as ‘very loving.’
In another interview, she described the booze-fuelled marriage as being drunk ‘for five years with an old man’.
Chris first rose to fame as the presenter of Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, which he fronted for one year on Channel 4 from 1994.
The game show was made by his own production company Ginger Media Group.
He currently hosts the Weekday Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio after returning to the station in January 2019 following a stint at BBC Radio 2.
Zoe Ball was named as successor in the Radio 2 breakfast slot, and began her new role a week before Evans on January 14 that year.
Chris previously hosted the breakfast show on Virgin Radio between 1997 and 2001.
In July 2016 he quit Top Gear after one series. The show failed to take off after Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May left for Amazon.
Viewing figures slumped to just 2.4million viewers, down from 4.3million under the previous presenters.
Chris defended the show’s performance, calling the new Top Gear ‘a hit’, but still left saying he had given it ‘my best shot, but sometimes that’s not enough’.
He added: ‘I feel like my standing aside is the single best thing I can now do to help the cause.’
In May that year, he took a short break after the death of his beloved mother Minnie aged 92 minutes before he was due on air.
He said: ‘The reason I’m not with you today is just before we came on air my mum passed away and I needed to go straight back home to be with the family.
‘Mum needed to be at peace. She was an incredible woman. Anyone who’s ever met her will tell you that and ultimately there was no battle lost, only a life won. Every single day’.
In 1995, Evans landed one of the most sought-after jobs in the industry, the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show.
But the broadcaster went off the rails amid heavy drinking and resigned live on air in 1997, after Radio 1 refused to meet his demands to work a four-day week.
He returned to the airwaves as the host of Virgin Radio’s breakfast show – and his production company Ginger Media Group also snapped up the station for £85 million.
The DJ hosted the show from 1997 to 2001, when he was sacked for ‘breach of contract’.
The star, seen out drinking with teenage girlfriend and later wife Billie, had failed to turn up for a week of breakfast shows.
‘I was an idiot – there’s no point sugar coating it,’ he later said.
He continued to front TFI Friday, but by 2000 the show – once pioneering and cutting edge – had lost its way and viewers deserted it.
Evans made a comeback on Radio 2 in 2005 as presenter of the Saturday afternoon show, before moving to the drivetime slot.
Evans worked his way up from a series of odd jobs – including working as a strip-o-gram – to presenting a show on Manchester’s Piccadilly Radio, where Timmy Mallett was his boss.