Bob Mortimer shares health update: “I’m never very well”

Bob Mortimer has spoken about his health during an appearance on The One Show.

The comedian appeared alongside Paul Whitehouse On Friday’s episode (September 1), where he explained how their show, Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, came about as a method of recuperation following his triple heart bypass surgery in 2015.

Asked by host Roman Kemp how the health benefits of nature sparked the series, Mortimer replied: “Yeah I wasn’t very well.”

“I’m never very well. It’s been a long time since I was very well,” he laughed. “So Paul took me fishing to get me out the doldrums after heart operations. And that’s how it all started.”

“He was very vulnerable at the time and I thought, ‘I could manipulate this into a show,’’’ Whitehouse joked. “You think I’m joking, don’t you? Look at the dead eyes.”

Mortimer underwent triple heart bypass surgery after it was discovered that “95 per cent” of his arteries were blocked (via the Guardian).

In an interview with the Big Issue in 2018, the comedian said: “My doctor told me that I would have had a heart attack on stage. He looked at my tour schedule and said I would most likely have gone down in Southampton.

“When I came home from being told I had to have heart surgery, it feels so dramatic. You think it is over.”

In September last year, Mortimer said he was hospitalised shortly after filming Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.

Speaking on Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre podcast, Mortimer said: “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.”

In the same interview (via The Sun), the comedian said he had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, after having the condition in his mid-20s.

“I have been free of it since I have been 34 and it came back 10 days ago,” he added. “It is really sad for me to know whether it will go. Yes I might be fat but actually, I am on steroids.”

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing series six is available on BBC iPlayer.

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