View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
November 21, 2016

Sunday Times food critic AA Gill reveals cancer diagnosis in latest column

By Freddy Mayhew

Sunday Times food critic AA Gill has revealed in his latest column that he has been diagnosed with cancer.

Gill, 62, told readers of his Table Talk restaurant review: “I’ve got an embarrassment of cancer, the full English.

“There is barely a morsel of offal not included. I have a trucker’s gut-buster, gimpy, malevolent, meaty malignancy.”

The columnist consulted doctors after people noticed he had lost weight. They told him he had lung cancer which had spread to other parts of his body.

Following his diagnosis Gill has proposed to his partner of 23 years Nicola Formby, with whom he has twins, both nine. He also has two grown-up children from his marriage to Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

Gill battled alcoholism in his earlier life and began a writing career in his thirties. He joined the Sunday Times in 1993.

Speaking to the paper about his diagnosis he said: “I realise I don’t have a bucket list; I don’t feel I’ve been cheated of anything,” he said.

Content from our partners
AI challenge asks journalists to pitch for help to solve industry challenges
Newsrooms 2.0: Why WordPress is taking over the industry
Handelsblatt's key strategy for unifying print and digital operations

“I’d like to have gone to Timbuktu, and there are places I will be sorry not to see again.

“But actually, because of the nature of my life and the nature of what happened to me in my early life – my addiction, I know I have been very lucky.

“I gave up [alcohol] when I was still quite young, so it was like being offered the next life. It was the real Willy Wonka golden ticket, I got a really good deal.

“And at the last minute I found something I could do. Somebody said: why don’t you watch television, eat good food and travel and then write about it? And, as lives go, that’s pretty good.”

He added: “There is obviously no silver lining to cancer, but one of the things I found most touching and compelling is that you give people a chance to be incredibly kind.”

Gill has said he would have chemotherapy on the NHS rather than using a private hospital because of the “connection it brings”.

Topics in this article : ,

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly dose of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how Progressive Media Investments may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network