Louis Walsh reveals ‘rare’ blood cancer diagnosis on Celebrity Big Brother

During a conversation on the reality TV show, Walsh said that ‘no one knew he was sick’.
Louis Walsh revealed on Celebrity Big Brother that he was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer (Matt Crossick/PA)
PA Archive
Pol Allingham15 March 2024
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Former X Factor judge Louis Walsh has revealed he was diagnosed with a “rare” blood cancer.

During a conversation on reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother, Walsh told former Love Island winner Ekin-Su Culculoglu and Dragons’ Den star Levi Roots that “no one knew he was sick”.

On Friday, he said he had been “shocked” to learn he had Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia, a slow-growing and rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that hits the white blood cells, according to Cancer Research UK.

Describing how he spent his lockdown during coronavirus, Walsh said: “I was sick, and I think nobody knew I was sick”.

Ekin-Su asked if he had Covid-19, and Walsh responded: “No, I had cancer – a mild version, a Waldenstrom, a rare one”.

Levi asked: “Which part? Pancreatic cancer?”

The 71-year-old responded: “In my blood, I didn’t even know that I had it until I went to the hospital, and they checked me, checked me, checked me, then they found it.

“They said it’s a rare one.”

He told the celebrities it affected him mentally, and gesturing his head said: “It’s just up here, even when I go past a hospital I almost get sick.

“It’s all gone, I’m fine. It was just the shock of being sick and that word – nobody wants that word.

“I have it blocked out, it’s just a reality check, you see so many people sick and it’s terrible.

“In my world it was all about pop music and all that. I didn’t think of anybody getting sick or anything like that, and that was like wow, reality check, you’re in the real world.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in