Trisha Goddard shares brave reason she signed up for CBB despite terminal cancer battle

8 April 2025, 12:01

Celebrity Big Brother contestant Trisha Goddard, 67, is battling incurable stage four breast cancer.

Trisha Goddard has revealed the brave reason why she decided to sign up for Celebrity Big Brother, despite battling stage four breast cancer.

The former talk show host, 67, confessed she had agreed to take part in the ITV reality show to send an important and inspirational message to terminal cancer patients.

When entering the iconic spy house alongside a string of famous faces on Monday night, the TV star opened up about her mission to prove that people with incurable illnesses can make the most of every opportunity.

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Getting frank about her courageous approach to life, she told hosts AJ Odudu and Will Best: "Well, I've been asked to do it every single year, and I've always thought, 'Are you kidding me?'.

"Being on Big Brother would show people how you can live successfully with cancer and not be so scared of dying that you become scared of living. So that's why I'm doing it."

The ex-daytime TV presenter, who hosted Trisha from 1998 to 2004, spoke candidly about her terminal diagnosis, which she announced to the world in February 2024.

The mother-of-two revealed the breast cancer she previously beat had unfortunately returned, and she now faces a gruelling fight with secondary breast cancer – meaning the disease has spread to another part of the body.

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Trisha, who shares daughters Billie and Madison with ex-husband Peter Gianfrancesco, explained: "You talk to people and you say you have stage four metastatic cancer. But there's stage four and there's stage four.

"You can have a few cells and you're stage four. You can have cancer in your brain, your heart, you know, God forbid, and you're stage four.

"So people hear metastatic and they don't think about the fact that there are people with metastatic breast cancer being treated by my oncologist who have been around for twenty years. So it's a huge thing.

"But people hear metastatic and it's terminal, which isn't used in the medical world, it's life limiting.

"You're written off and there's just pity towards you. Anyone going through it, and the Princess of Wales said it perfectly, you're living with uncertainty, but all you get is pity.

"I can categorically tell you there are lots of people in lots of industries who are living with cancer who've never said a word for that reason.

"I was doing something the other day and a person revealed to me that they were about to go and get their treatment plan, they were whispering and said, 'I can't let anybody else know about this because I might lose my job.' That's so wrong.'"

Trisha, who occasionally appears as a panellist on Good Morning Britain, confessed that although her type of cancer is incurable, she doesn't want "pity" from her fans or fellow CBB housemates.

She added: "There's the other thing where people find out and they tell you about their mother who went through it and went through hell, they'll tell you the horror stories.

"And you're telling me this, why? Or I get the pity head nod, or they talk about me and my 'battle', how I'm 'fighting this'.

"That pi**** me off. It pi**** 90 per cent of us off because we're not battling or fighting. We're sitting on the end of a drip or something, you know, 'be strong' or 'don't give in'."

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