Bob Mortimer reveals secret hospital visit following triple heart bypass and admits he’s ‘not very well’
BOB Mortimer has revealed he was taken to hospital on Saturday after struggling with his health.
The comedy legend, who stars in hit BBC show Gone Fishing with Paul Whitehouse, underwent a triple heart bypass seven years ago after being told he had coronary heart disease.
At the time doctors warned Bob, 63, that he would die if he didn’t have the op – after they discovered some of his arteries were 95-98 percent blocked.
Bob made the revelation while recording Richard Herring’s podcast last night.
Speaking at the Leicester Square Theatre, Bob said: “I am not very well.
“I am not very healthy at the moment.”
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When asked about his health following his heart troubles, Bob continued: “I did a show last week, a fishing show and there was only two and a half days filming and I did it Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday and I was in hospital on the Saturday.
“I am sorry I should not have said that should I? It's a real downer.”
A source close to Bob told The Sun: “After a brief assessment Bob was deemed fit and well and he is now back fishing.”
Bob went on to make light of his ill health and joked about his previous life choices – which included him having 16 sugars in his tea.
He added: “I think because I was a smoker and an incredibly fast runner and a very dramatic dancer and I put that all in my younger years.
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“I think I am about 10 years ahead of myself with my body ageing.”
Along with his heart, Bob said a previous diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis has recently returned.
The funnyman, who found fame with his comedy partnership with Vic Reeves, said he was first told he had the condition, which causes swelling and pain in your joints, over forty years ago.
Bob said on stage: “In my mid-twenties I got struck down with rheumatoid arthritis.
“I just woke up and it was like, ‘bang’.
“I have been free of it since I have been 34 and it came back 10 days ago.
“It is really sad for me to know whether it will go. Yes I might be fat but actually I am on steroids.”
He added: “At around 60 I like turned off and did not want anything different to happen.
“But it takes until you are 60 to realise all the things you could have done.
“When your bones start aching and when you hear people say: ‘I am going to do this,’ - you aren’t going to do them. You have got to do them now. There is no going back.
“At my age we all feel 47 but then your body packs in.”
Following his heart bypass surgery in 2015, Bob said he wanted to change his lifestyle for good.
He said last year: “I did some things after the operation that I wouldn’t have done before. It felt like a brush with mortality. I realised that you are counting down the years.”
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Bob and Paul’s latest series of Gone Fishing is on air now.
The pair started the show in 2018 and it has a cult following – with Gone Fishing now in its fifth series.
