Anne Diamond reveals her fight against breast cancer

Anne Diamond has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer after being off-air for six months - rather than being on a world cruise, as social media rumours had suggested.

The GB News presenter said she had received the diagnosis the same day as finding out she was to be made OBE.

The 68-year-old said she had undergone a double mastectomy in her “fight against breast cancer” - which she described as “a long journey”.

“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,” she told GB News.

‘I’m still not at the end of the journey’

“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.”

Diamond said she had learnt the news on the same morning she was told via email that she had been awarded an OBE in the New Year honours for her campaigning on cot deaths.

She and her former husband Mike Hollingsworth lost their son Sebastian in 1990 after he died from sudden infant death syndrome.

Diamond joined forces with the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID), now known as The Lullaby Trust, and the Department of Health to launch the successful Back to Sleep campaign.

“It was a wonderful moment and that was like 9.30 in the morning,” she told GB News.

“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.

“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.”

‘I had the full works’

Diamond added that she did not have advice for others on dealing with cancer as she was “still going through it”, but added that she was “well enough” to return to work.

“I had the full works, the full mastectomy. This is the first time I’ve talked about it, so it’s quite difficult but I’ve had the full works. The first operation I had was nine hours long,” she said.

“I’ve had a load of radiotherapy, which I found very hard too.

“So it’s been a journey, but I’m not pretending for a minute that I am extraordinary, because I am fully aware that a quarter of women in this country are going through what I’ve just gone through and I don’t have any advice to give. I only have empathy.”

Diamond, who joined GB News in 2022, will return to the channel on Saturday to host Breakfast with Dixon.