Eric Idle has said that he only cried about his pancreatic cancer when his doctor gave him the all-clear.
The Monty Python star was diagnosed with the condition three years ago, but never spoke about it publicly or allowed himself to become emotional throughout his treatment.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Idle said that he’d only allowed himself to cry when he learnt that the treatment had been successful.
“I didn’t cry till I knew I was going to live,” he said.
“I just got on with it. I’m British! You try not to show emotions in the face of danger.”
Idle, 79, spoke publicly about his diagnosis for the first time last month in an op-ed for Time.
“About three years ago I was incredibly lucky: I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,” he wrote. “Lucky? One of the most lethal forms of cancer, how on earth was that lucky? Well, because it was found incredibly early.”
After undergoing surgery in Los Angeles, Idle would have check-ups every six months and was recently told that he should live for another 10 years.
“[The doctor] also said, ‘Had you been two weeks later you wouldn’t have got to see the surgery; you would have been straight into chemo’, which is unpleasant and not much use at that stage,” he told The Guardian.
