Bob Mortimer has shocked fans with a brutally honest confession — admitting he’s been quietly ignoring strict medical orders ever since surviving his emergency triple heart bypass.
The 66-year-old comedian, whose heart once stopped for 32 minutes before surgeons discovered that 95% of his arteries were blocked, revealed that even the most serious warnings haven’t been enough to separate him from his greatest weakness: cheese.
He recalled, with a mix of humour and disbelief, that the dietitian tried to limit him to a matchbox-sized portion per week. Mortimer said the rule “broke my heart”, adding that he’s “in the group who’d rather have three years less” than live without the joy of cheese.
It’s just the latest twist in a long journey of health challenges. Mortimer previously shared how he became unable to walk last summer after contracting shingles while filming Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. On top of his heart issues, he has lived for years with arthritis and has candidly admitted that lockdown “probably took two years off my life” because of overeating, inactivity and alcohol.
Speaking on Mel Giedroyc’s Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake podcast, Mortimer also opened up about how his brush with death reshaped his relationship with fear. He said he no longer feels frightened by the idea of dying — only frustrated that he won’t be around to see “how stories end… my children’s stories, my wife’s, football, everything happening in the world.”
He even described seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel” and moving toward it with a sense of profound peace, only to wake up the next day “OK” and newly unafraid of death.
Mortimer also revealed the extraordinary circumstances of his marriage to longtime partner Lisa Matthews. After doctors warned him in 2015 about the severity of his condition, they received an emergency exemption and married just 30 minutes before he was taken in for surgery. “We got married at half nine on Monday and I went into hospital for the operation at ten,” he said.
Despite the setbacks — and the warnings he fully admits to ignoring — Mortimer is still leaning on the same dry humour that made him a national treasure. And no matter what the doctors say, it seems nothing will come between him and the pleasure of cheese.
