Gogglebox star Shaun Malone has revealed that he’s currently in hospital after undergoing brain surgery.
The reality star has regularly appeared on the Channel 4 with his mum, dad, brother and sister since they joined the cast in 2014, making them one of the longest-running Gogglebox families.
On Thursday (25 June), Malone shared a picture of several large stitches in his head, revealing that he had been on the operating table.
“Heatwave is a terrible time to be stuck in hospital until Friday,” he wrote on Instagram. “Brain surgery is deffo not the highlight of my year.”
Malone suffered brain damage as a teenager after picking up an infection – with doctors giving him a less than 10 per cent chance of surviving. “In 2010, I got sinusitis and in some way, the infection found its way back to my brain,” he told Coaching for the Sofa podcast in 2020.
“And then I collapsed one day at home and I ended up going into a coma and they said to my mum and dad that I had a less than 10 per cent chance of living.”
After waking up from the coma, he found that he was left with brain damage, affecting his memory and mobility. “I essentially had a stroke, I couldn’t move my left arm, my left leg, even the left side of my face,” he said. “My sister has got pictures of me trying to eat.”
Despite his health issues, Malone has been a constant on Gogglebox over the last 10 years with mum Julie, dad Tom Sr and sister Vanessa. Tom Jr previously starred alongside them but quit the show in 2021 and went on to appear on Celebrity Coach Trip, The Real Dirty Dancing and Celebrity Mastermind.
Last year, the Malones announced the death of their dog Bob – a Rottweiler who made a number of cameos on Gogglebox over the years.
“Today is the day we had to say goodbye to big Bob, an absolutely great dog like a big cuddly bear,” Shaun Malone wrote on Instagram in June last year. While Julie added: “We are heartbroken, RIP our beautiful Big Bob xx.”
While Gogglebox finished airing in May, the celebrity version began airing earlier this month with Olivia Attwood, George Clarke, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Julian Clary among the new additions in the cast.
They joined a roster of returning celebrities including Vernon Kay and Paddy McGuinness, Bez and Shaun, Roman and Martin Kemp, Ashley Banjo and Perri Kiely, Nick Grimshaw and niece Liv, the Mangans, and Rylan and his mother Linda.
