BBC star Richard Corrigan has admitted chemotherapy “sucks you dry” while reflecting on his treatment for kidney cancer. The 62-year-old presenter of BBC Two’s Great British Food Revival and multi-time winner of BBC One’s Great British Menu, amongst many other shows, has been battling the condition since his diagnosis in 2024. The chef, who cooked for the late Queen as well as other royals, is still working in his restaurant empire but confessed: “You have to take the bad days with the good days, and enjoy the good days, that’s for sure. The bad days are – as with anyone’s illness – utter exhaustion and tiredness. And the good days…you have plenty hours in you to go and enjoy yourself.”<\/p>\n
Explaining the effects, he said: “Chemo doesn’t affect your mind; it affects your body. Your battery always feels like it is just about to collapse.<\/p>\n
“…It’s your energy battery, I’m talking your energy within your system…” he told the Sunday Independent.<\/p>\n
On the plus side, he said: “It is holding things at bay. It is the finger in the dam, isn’t it, really, the chemo? It stops the dam bursting.”<\/p>\n
The award-winning culinary star, who has earned 2 individual Michelin stars during the course of his career for Fulham Road in 1994 and Lindsay House in Soho in 1997, was prompted to get checked out after his wife of 35 years, Maria, noticed changes in his energy levels and sleep patterns.<\/p>\n
He underwent a private scan, which ultimately revealed a large tumour on one of his kidneys.<\/p>\n
Just three weeks later, he underwent a complex, seven-hour surgery at the Royal Free Hospital in London to remove the tumour.<\/p>\n
Since then he has been undergoing ongoing chemotherapy and specialist care at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.<\/p>\n
In the chat, he revealed his diagnosis had led to a change in his lifestyle – particularly his dietary habits. He has given up alcohol completely. He also said he is doing his best to eat healthily.<\/p>\n
Richard made headlines in March 2025 when he gave his brutal four-word verdict on Meghan Markle’s now-axed Netflix show With Love, Meghan.<\/p>\n
In a four-word statement, he told the Daily Mail: “It’s a bit pretentious.”<\/p>\n
“I don’t like the pretence. California is all very Hollywood; it’s all very samey \u2013 Britain is not like that.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think anyone likes people doing cheap TV. If you’re gonna leave [royal life], buy yourself a nice pad and entertain and enjoy yourself, but don’t become a burden.”<\/p>\n
Speaking about the King, he said: “You can never be responsible for who your children marry, and you shouldn’t be \u2013 they have to make their way in the world.”<\/p>\n
Corrigan had previously expressed disappointment with Meghan’s behaviour. He said: “I cooked for the Queen free of charge, of course.<\/p>\n
“And I’ll cook for anyone, but let me just say, some people will have to pay. I’d let [Meghan] in the restaurant, for sure, but the Queen had the red carpet rolled out. Would Meghan? I don’t think so.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC star Richard Corrigan has admitted chemotherapy “sucks you dry” while reflecting on his treatment for kidney cancer. The 62-year-old presenter of BBC Two’s Great British Food Revival and multi-time winner of BBC One’s Great British Menu, amongst many other shows, has been battling the condition since his diagnosis in 2024. The chef, who cooked<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1167,13081,13084,13083,13082,1052,9,10,13080,13074,13075,13076,13078,13079,13077],"class_list":["post-13964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrity-chefs","tag-bbc","tag-bbc-chef-cancer","tag-bbc-latest","tag-bbc-news","tag-bbc-star-ill","tag-cancer","tag-celebrity-chef","tag-celebrity-chefs","tag-meghan-markle-slammed","tag-richard-corrigan","tag-richard-corrigan-cancer","tag-richard-corrigan-cancer-treatment","tag-richard-corrigan-latest","tag-richard-corrigan-meghan-markle","tag-richard-corrigan-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117597611227868500","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}