Martin Kemp believes he only has 10 years left to live
The 62-year-old musician was diagnosed with two brain tumours in the 1990s and though the benign growths were removed and haven't returned, the Spandau Ballet star - who developed epilepsy as a side effect - thinks the medical scare will have had an impact on his life expectancy
8 May 2024
Asked by his son Roman how much longer he thinks he will be alive on their 'FFS! My Dad Is Martin Kemp' podcast, he said: "I'll be really honest with you, 10 years.
"I don't know how long I've got left but I will tell you, since I was the age of 34, when I went through all of that brain tumour scare, I spent two years of my life thinking I was going to die."
Martin - who, as well as Roman, 31, also has 35-year-old daughter Harley with wife Shirlie - processed his thoughts about his mortality after his brain tumour diagnosis and he now views every day of his life as "a bonus".
He said: "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 practically resigned to the fact that I was going to die, but I was quite happy with my lot, because I had lived the most incredible experiences.
"By the time 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, do you know what? What a life', and that was back then. So, every year that I live, every month that I'm alive now is like a bonus."
But the 'Gold' hitmaker hopes his prediction is wrong.
He added: "I would be happy if I got to 80, that gives me 18 years!"
Martin previously told how accepting the role of Steve Owen on 'EastEnders' - who he played from 1998 to 2002 - helped with his recovery from brain surgery.
Speaking on the 'Dish' podcast in 2022, he said: "My brain still wasn't working properly from the operation. To the point where sometimes if I wanted to walk left, I would walk right, or like I couldn't think about putting things in order, or anything like that.
"Learning lines was just way out 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 on because I thought yeah, it was a good gig - it was me trying to get my life back together."
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