Jonnie Irwin has opened up about his biggest regret since being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The A Place In The Sun presenter, 49, was first diagnosed with lung cancer in 2020 and told by doctors he likely only had six months to live.
He defied those predictions and decided to go public with his diagnosis last November after being told his cancer had spread to his brain.
He is now determined to spend as much time as he can with wife Jessica and their three children, Rex, four, and twins Rafa and Cormac, who turn three this month.
However, he has expressed his regret at working throughout the last two years and said he made a mistake which he hopes others can learn from.
“I didn’t take critical illness insurance out and therefore I had to keep working,” the Leicestershire-born star explained. “Without work, I’ve got no means of paying the bills. And if I had taken the critical illness insurance out, that could’ve covered my outgoings and I probably could’ve told the world [about his condition] a lot sooner.”
Irwin told AIG Life’s The OneChat podcast that he feels “ridiculous” for not considering this level of insurance after getting his diagnosis.
He continued: “I could’ve had two years of living a more open lifestyle. And I want people to learn from that mistake. I think at the time I just thought I can better spend that money elsewhere. Where I don’t know. I’ve not frittered it away. Maybe because I know what benefits it would have had, it just seems ridiculous that I didn’t.
“I thought I was doing well just taking out life insurance. It’s one positive thing and helped me a great deal in getting a financial position in life to know my wife and my boys are more secure. But how I wish I’d taken out that extra cover.”
