Rick Stein has admitted that he ‘isn’t going to last that much longer’ after his health woes.
The chef, 77, had open heart surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London last year after struggling with breathlessness.
Now 18 months on from the operation, despite describing his future in a matter if fact way, he had said he feels ‘optimistic’ and won’t lose sleep ‘pondering how little life he’s got left’.
Rick’s aorta wasn’t working properly and was advised by doctors to go under the knife.
He’s now told The Times: ‘Having had the operation and recovered, the improvement in my health has left me tremendously optimistic.
Rick Stein has admitted that he ‘isn’t going to last that much longer’ after his health woes last year
The chef, 77, had open heart surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London last year after struggling with breathlessness for years
‘Even though at my age and with the normal realities of life I’m not going to last that much longer.
‘I think as long as you’ve got your health and you’re optimistic generally and enjoying your life, you don’t tend to ponder too much about how little life you’ve got left.’
He said previously of his operation: ‘It was scary before I went into the operation,’
‘Afterwards you realise if you had died you wouldn’t have noticed, because you were under the anaesthetic.’
‘An operation like that stops you in your tracks and makes you think about who you are.
‘It’s time to review your life. You’ve been through a very life-threatening experience.
‘The surgeon says it’s no more dangerous than the appendix these days, but to have your heart taken out, repaired and put back in, personally I’d say that’s big!’
There was no alternative for a chef who has loved the good life, including lashings of butter, cream and wine in his cooking and travel shows.
Now 18 months on from the operation, despite describing his future in a matter if fact way, he had said he feels ‘optimistic’ and won’t lose sleep ‘pondering how little life he’s got left’
Rick is married to wife Sarah who helped to look after him following the open heart surgery (seen in 2013 together)
‘I had a valve in my heart that had to be replaced because it wasn’t working properly. It was getting worse and worse. The cardiologist finally said, ‘You’re gonna have to have the op.’
He added of the pain after the operation: ‘Your lungs are sort of flattened during the process. They don’t want a build-up of horrid stuff, so they make you cough. It must be like childbirth, it’s so painful.
Even so, he was reluctant to help himself. ‘I think it’s a British thing. I don’t like making a fuss.
‘They give you morphine which is self-induced, you pump the drugs when the pain is getting intolerable. I stopped, though.
‘This Aussie nurse came up to me and said, ‘How come you’re not using it?’ And I said, ‘Well, you know, it’s morphine.’ She said, ‘Do you think you’re gonna get addicted? Don’t be such a fool! Just use it.’
Rick is married to wife Sarah and has three sons with first wife Jill: Edward, Jack and Charles.
Rick met Sarah, then his Australian publicist, when she was working on a book tour he was doing Down Under.
Rick is married to wife Sarah and has three sons with first wife Jill: Edward, Jack and Charles (seen together)
