Holly Willoughby in tears as Julia Bradbury opens up about cancer battle

Holly Willoughby was tearful on This Morning as Julia Bradbury talked about her breast cancer battle.

The Countryfile presenter, 51, was diagnosed with the illness in September 2021 and has gone through a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

She is now set to open up about her fight in new documentary Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer And Me, and was on the ITV daytime show to talk about it.

Read more: Julia Bradbury celebrates wearing a bikini again for the first time since her breast cancer op

One clip from the programme showed the TV star being reunited with her children after having surgery.

Bradbury was seen cuddling her children on a bed, as she talked about saying goodbye to her breast before her mastectomy.

When they cut back to the studio, Willoughby was tearful.

“That got me,” she said.

"No, I can't look at that without it getting me,” Bradbury said.

“I'm not surprised,” said Willoughby, who has three young children.

Bradbury told Willoughby and her co-host Phillip Schofield that being told she had cancer was “completely unbelievable”.

“Until you’re in that situation, you don’t know how you’re going to react,” she said.

“You immediately think about death when you think of cancer. There are very few people who live through a cancer diagnosis and never think about it again in their lives.”

The mother-of-three said “telling your children you have cancer is the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do in your life”.

“You also don’t know how much you tell them to be realistic, and how much do you need to protect them,” she said.

“It’s a very tricky balance. I don’t think any parent really knows what to do.”

The star said a friend advised her to say goodbye to her breast and that it proved to be “really helpful and cathartic”.

“It’s (mastectomy) a really traumatic thing and a brutal procedure… there is no nice way to treat cancer, it’s pretty horrible,” she said.

Read more: Julia Bradbury shares weight online after being skinny-shamed

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV and ITV Hub.

Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer And Me airs on 28 April at 9pm on ITV.

Watch: Julia Bradbury returns to work on This Morning four months after mastectomy