Louis Walsh has opened up about his secret battle with cancer during the pandemic.
The former X-Factor judge revealed he had been fighting a rare form of blood cancer.
The 71-year-old described being diagnosed with Waldenstrom Macroglobulinaemia as a “reality check.”
Louis made the revelation during a conversation with housemates Levi Roots and Ekin-Su.
The band manager was asked about his experience in lockdown to which he replied: “I was sick, and I think nobody knew I was sick. I had cancer – a mild version, a rare one, in my blood.”
“I didn’t even know I had it until I went to the hospital. They checked me and then they found it.”
Louis admitted: “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, 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.”
A friend of the star told the Mirror that battling Cancer is the reason why Louis has been sleeping so much in the reality show’s house.
The source told the outlet: “Louis is in remission currently but you can see how frail he is and that he has lost a lot of weight. It’s also the reason why he’s sleeping so much, it all took a lot out of him.”
“The whole experience was the main driver behind signing up for the show. He’d been really ill and just wanted to enjoy life again and thought ‘what the hell’.”
“The friend said that Louis been suffering the condition in lockdown and received incredible care in Dublin but it left him feeling very isolated.”
They added: “It’s little wonder he has decided to immerse himself in the Celebrity Big Brother house. It’s almost as a reaction to what has happened.”
“It was quite the ordeal, not least as the cancer is so rare that it took a while to get diagnosed.”
