Martin Kemp told his son Roman that his previous brain tumor diagnoses had left him “resigned to the fact that I was going to die”.
The Spandau Ballet bassist, 62, was diagnosed with two brain tumors in the 1990s and had to undergo radiotherapy and surgery to remove them.
Although the benign growths were successfully removed and did not recur, Martin continued to struggle with epilepsy as a side effect.
Speaking in the first episode of his and Roman’s podcast FFS! My Dad is Martin Kemp, aptly titled Mort, Martin and Roman, 31, have been candid on the subject.
At one point, Roman asked Martin how long he thought he would be alive. Martin responds: “I’m going to be very honest with you, 10 years.”
Martin Kemp, 62, told his son Roman, 31, that his previous brain tumor diagnoses had left him “resigned to the fact that I was going to die” and predicted he had 10 years to live.
Speaking in the first episode of his and Roman’s podcast FFS! My Dad is Martin Kemp, aptly titled Mort, Martin and Roman, 31 (pictured), have been candid on the subject
Martin explained: “I don’t know how much time I have left, but I will tell you that since I was 34, when I went through all this fear of brain tumors, I have spent two years of my life thinking that I was going to die.
“And I think after that, everything else, every day, every year, every month that I’ve lived, every experience that I’ve had has been a bonus.
“I was pretty much resigned to the idea of dying, but I was quite happy with my fate, because I had had the most incredible experiences.”
Martin reiterated: “When I was 34 and I thought I was going to die, I spent two years thinking about it, I was quite happy, I thought, ‘If I go, you know what ? What a life, and it was back then.” So every year that I live, every month that I live now is like a bonus.
The star revealed that amid his recovery, when he was still struggling with his brain functions, EastEnders approached him with the role of Steve Owen.
Martin recalled on the Dish in 2022 podcast: “Everyone around me was like, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it.’ This will ruin your career, don’t do it.”
“Well, because they’ve never had any famous actors on this show before, have they?” Everyone had grown up with EastEnders, so I was sort of the first of these famous actors to get into it. »
Explaining his hesitation, Martin said: “My brain still wasn’t working properly following the operation. To the point where sometimes if I wanted to walk left, I walked right, or like I couldn’t think of putting things in order, or something like that.
Martin took on his now infamous role as Steve Owen in EastEnders while he was at the height of his battle with epilepsy after tumors (with his on-screen wife Tamzin Outhwaite in 1998)
The duo’s podcast – FFS! My Dad Is Martin Kemp – launched on May 1 and aims to capture some of the everyday conversations and banter between the two
“The lines of learning were just there. When EastEnders was offered to me, it was a chance for me to get over it, so it wasn’t just me taking EastEnders because I thought yeah, it was a good gig – it was me who was trying to get my life back together.
As fans of the soap know, Martin succeeded – his villainous character’s run from 1998 to 2002 is still beloved today.
Speaking about his treatment in 2009, Martin revealed: “The first tumor was the size of a crushed grapefruit and the doctors could cut into my skull to get to it.”
“What was terrifying was the second tumor – the doctors avoided talking about it. I was very worried about the little guy in the middle of my head.
“After two years, the doctors said the disease was getting bigger and wanted to eliminate it. But my wife didn’t want me to have surgery because it would cause a lot of collateral damage.
“She found a doctor who told her he could be attacked by radiation, using an early form of Gamma Knife technology.
“Within six months of treatment there were signs that he was dying and today there is nothing left of that.”
FFS! My Father is Martin Kemp airs on all podcast streaming services on Mondays and on YouTube on Saturdays.
Martin said: “I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I was going to die, but I was quite happy with my fate, because I had had the most incredible experiences” (pictured with Roman)
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