TV veteran Anne Diamond has revealed she is fighting breast cancer, admitting it's been "a long journey".
The 68-year-old broadcasting star, who announced her diagnosis on GB News on Thursday, explained her six-month absence from TV, joking: "I haven't been on a world cruise, which is what I know social media has been saying... because I'm well known now for loving cruises.
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"It's been a fight against breast cancer. That's what it's been. It's been a long journey. And five months later, I'm still not at the end of the journey, but I'm through it enough to come back to work."
© GB NewsAnne revealed that she received her diagnosis on the same day that she found out she was going to be made an OBE for services to public health and charity due to her campaigning on cot death.
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"It was a wonderful moment and that was at 9.30 in the morning," she said of the royal honour. "But I knew then, because I'd already seen my GP, that I had to go to a breast cancer screening thing later in the morning. I thought I would just go for a mammogram, and a couple of tests and I'd be free in an hour."
She continued: "I spent the entire morning at my local hospital where they did everything, biopsies, X-rays, CT scans, a couple of mammograms, everything, and by lunchtime I was still there. And a lovely lady came with a lanyard around her neck that said MacMillan Cancer Care and I knew then it was serious."
© GettyMother-of-five Anne has had "the full works" including a mastectomy, she added, her first operation lasting nine hours.
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"I don't remember it. I was in and out like that, but nine hours of removal and rebuild, that took a lot of getting over and then I had an operation later where they took out lymph nodes as well, just to make sure they can trace the travel, if the cancer has travelled at all to the rest of the body. Luckily, I don't think it did," she said. "I've had a load of radiotherapy, which I found very hard too."
© GettyAnne began her career in regional news before becoming a familiar face on daytime television on both BBC and ITV. Her screen credits include Good Morning with Anne and Nick, alongside Nick Owen, as well as Loose Women, Channel 5's The Wright Stuff, and Celebrity Big Brother.
She joined GB News last year, heading its weekend breakfast show with co-host Stephen Dixon. Anne revealed that despite her diagnosis, she is well enough to return to work and will be back on screens this Saturday.
Who is Anne Diamond's partner and how many children does she have?
Anne, who lives in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, was previously married to Mike Hollingsworth from 1989 to 1999. The couple tied the knot after the birth of their second child and went on to have three more children together.
© GettyIn 1991, their son Sebastian died of sudden infant death syndrome when he was three months old, leading Anne to campaign about safe sleep. She joined forces with the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID), now the Lullaby Trust, and other health authorities to front the 'Back to Sleep' campaign, which urged parents to ensure their babies slept on their backs instead of their fronts.
Anne and Mike separated in 1998 after his numerous affairs, and divorced the year later.
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