Trisha Goddard has spoken for the first time about landing her own chat show in America. She will be moving from the UK to New York to host the show on television channel NBC – her first TV role since battling breast cancer four years ago.In an exclusive interview with HELLO! magazine, she also reveals she has been given a clean bill of health following her recent annual check-up. And Trisha reveals she sometimes can’t quite believe her luck. “When I’m running across the fields with the dog back in England, I will wonder if all of this really happened,” she says.
“When I started out back in 1987, I never dreamed I would get a job as a television presenter in Australia, that I would be the first black female presenter in their history or that I would then be head-hunted back to England to present there. And then, to be here in the United States… “Part of me thinks the alarm clock is going to go off in a minute and I will have to wake up and do the school run.” In the interview Trisha also addresses her battle with breast cancer four years ago. After revealing that she recently received a clean bill of health following her her annual health check, she says she carried on working during the treatment to keep her sane. “People ask how I did that but I had a team of 80 people working on the show, all of whom had mortgages to pay, too,” she explains.
“I also think it helped me to have a distraction, something to focus on. Support groups might work for some people but sitting round talking about it and dwelling on the negative isn’t me.” But she also says that coping with the disease has changed her outlook on life.“Cancer has definitely changed me,” she admits. “I love what I do – I love connecting with people, whether it’s in the street or on television – but I’m far more relaxed about it all now; I’m not some career-driven beast these days. “I used to live everywhere but in the here and now. I live in the now these days, I really do.” To read more of the interview with Trisha, including her plans for her new chat show, how she felt when her Channel 5 programme was axed and how her family reacted to her breast cancer battle, pick up the latest issue of HELLO!, issue 1219.
