Bill Turnbull was “buzzing” to be back on live breakfast TV and says he feels good “80% of the time” despite having prostate cancer.
The much-loved 64-year-old presenter was reunited with former BBC Breakfast co-host Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain today and the pair opened the show with a hug.
As he stood in for Piers Morgan , he said: “I can’t believe this is happening.”
Bill’s name trended on Twitter as viewers expressed their delight to see him back on screen and looking so well.
After the show ended, Bill Turnbull said: “I feel so many different things. On one hand it was so great to be back on live television. It was really exciting, and when you do it for 15 years like I did you take it for granted.
“So to have the opportunity after four years away to do it again, especially after the events of the past couple of years, I’d never have dreamed it would happen. It was wonderful to be able to do that.
“I felt rusty, really rusty. I was holding onto Susanna’s coat-tails. Eventually I was able to relax into it and feel more comfortable so I am looking forward to doing it again until Wednesday. I am buzzing really. The reaction has been lovely.”
Bill and Susanna worked together on BBC Breakfast from 2001 until she left in 2014. He left in 2016 and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2017, going public with the news in March 2018.
Last year saw he fronted a documentary, Bill Turnbull: Staying Alive, looking into the disease and exploring potential treatments for the cancer.
He says he prefers to say he is “living with cancer” and not battling it.
Bill said: “I feel pretty good. Cancer, the way it works is, you can feel well for long periods of time and then it can come back and has another go at you. I’m at one of those phases where I feel all right. The treatment is coming to an end and I get my blood figures every month and they are mostly OK. I haven’t had a scan for a while so I don’t really know what the picture is on the inside but I feel remarkably healthy almost all the time.
“It gets easier to live with. On days I am feeling well I think ‘I have got cancer, so what’ and then on a morning you don’t feel well you don’t feel so good mentally and that can bring you down.
“But I’d say 80% of the time I’m up there, and that’s all right.”
He also spoke of adapting his diet, adding: “We pretty much excluded meat, very very occasionally I’ll have a bit of meat as a treat. I don’t do dairy and I’ve stopped drinking largely. There are lots of us who are trying to help ourselves by doing little things to give your body every opportunity to heal.”
While he is enjoying being back on live TV, it is not something he would consider doing constantly. He added: “Stress isn’t good for cancer. That is why I wouldn’t do this type of show all the time.
“I am on a hormone treatment, which gives you mood swings and can make you emotional. I also get hot flushes, and I did have one or two today.”
Susanna also described her delight at working with Bill again, saying: “It was so lovely to be back together. It felt very natural. The audience loved seeing him.
“He is such a gentleman and he has always been an inspiration but everything that Bill has gone through is also very inspiring. People are really motivated by Bill particularly and his story.”
Watch Good Morning Britain weekdays on ITV, 6am to 9am. Bill continues hosting until tomorrow.