Dan Walker opens up about his struggle with sleep deprivation while presenting BBC Breakfast, revealing he would often cry in the toilets and feel like a “zombie” during his time on the show.

Dan Walker has revealed that he ‘used to cry in the toilets’ while presenting BBC Breakfast during his appearance on Wednesday’s installment of GMB.

The former BBC Breakfast host, 46, left the early morning show in 2022 to present Channel 5’s evening news and now also currently presents Classic FM radio.

Dan recalled that his early 3am starts was one of the difficulties of his job and made him struggle with bad sleep deprivation. 

Speaking to Good Morning Britain hosts Josie Gibson and Dermot O’Leary on the ITV Daytime show, Dan shed light on the downside of waking up double early for work.

He said: ‘When I used to do BBC Breakfast, you know what it’s like. If that alarm goes off at three that’s far too early, that’s flight to Spain time isn’t it.

Dan Walker, 46, has revealed that he ‘used to cry in the toilets’ while presenting BBC Breakfast during his appearance on Wednesday’s installment of GMB

The former BBC Breakfast host left the early morning show in 2022 to present Channel 5’s evening news and also currently presents Classic FM radio (pictured with BBC’s Sally Nugent)

‘I get up now about 5.30am/ 5.45am, which is essentially a lie in and I feel great, I feel refreshed and I really enjoy the job I do.

‘By Wednesday I was, like, full zombie mode. And also you get really emotional. By Wednesday I was like, end of the show, you are like, in the toilets just crying.

‘Anything sets you off. Someone says something nice about your trousers and you are like [fake cries].

‘Not everyday [he cried], but I think you just get a little bit emotional when you are sleep deprived.’

It comes after the star revealed in November 2023 that he was told he had cancer during a terrifying hospital stay in Poland.

The broadcaster was taken to hospital after his kidneys stopped working and he was pumped with eight litres of saline solution.

His head also doubled in size and he had to walk around naked as his body was so bloated he couldn’t fit into his boxer shorts.

Speaking on the podcast White Wine Question Time, Dan said he is forever grateful to his former colleague Richard Hughes who accompanied him to the hospital back when the scare happened in 2012.

Dan recalled that his early 3am starts was one of the difficulties of his job and made him struggle with bad deprivation

Speaking to hosts Josie Gibson and Dermot O’Leary on the ITV Daytime show, Dan shed light on the downside of waking up double early for work

He said: ‘By Wednesday I was, like, full zombie mode. And also you get really emotional. By Wednesday I was like, end of the show, you are like, in the toilets just crying. Anything sets you off. Someone says something nice about your trousers and you are like [fake cries]’ 

He said: ‘I was in Poland a few years ago covering the European Championships and I had a slightly strange lump in my stomach.

‘My breathing was changing a little bit and I went to the medical centre in the broadcast centre there, and within two and a half minutes I was in the back of an ambulance on my way to a Polish A&E.

‘And a guy called Richard Hughes, who is the editor of Match Of The Day now, and a guy I’d worked with for many years, he dropped everything and came with me.

‘You know times in life when you think sometimes you need someone to hold your hand.

‘It did get a bit scary that night – about two o’clock in the morning a Polish consultant came in and told me that I had cancer because they’d seen some shadows on my kidney. He used the word tumour.’

But later Dan asked if the head consultant could look at his scan to make 100% sure it was cancer before he called his family and told them. 

He said: ‘At eight o’clock in the morning she came in straight away and she said ‘I’ve got good news, it’s not a tumour.’

It turned out Dan did not have cancer but was instead battling a serious virus that harmed the functioning of his kidneys.