Julia Bradbury has revealed the heartbreaking response from her children when she told them about her cancer diagnosis as her daughter asked, ‘are you going to die’?
The Countryfile presenter, 53, was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2021 before undergoing a mastectomy to have her 6cm tumour removed.
Julia shares her son Zephyr, 13, and her twin girls, Xanthe and Zena, eight, with her property developer husband, Gerard Cunningham.
And during an interview on new health podcast from Dr Oscar Duke, Bedside Manners, she explained that HER children immediately asked if she was going to loose her hair or if she will die.
She told the healthcare professional: ‘So I took them into the garden. Jerry and I took them into the garden and just told them and said, look, we’ve got some bad news.
‘Mummy’s not very well, and she has this thing called cancer and they immediately went, does that mean your hair’s going to fall out? And that’s what children think about. They think about chemotherapy.

Julia Bradbury has revealed the heartbreaking response from her children when she told them about her cancer diagnosis as her daughter asked, ‘are you going to die’?

The Countryfile presenter, was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2021 before undergoing a mastectomy to have her 6cm tumour removed
‘Yeah, because they’ve seen these images, don’t they? Then of course the question was, are you going to die?
‘And it’s like, no, I don’t think I am going to die. I’m going to have this treatment. I’m not going to be very well, and I’m going to be a bit sensitive and a bit poorly.
‘Then one of my little girls, and I’ve spoken about this a lot, and it always makes me cry, she said, can I still hug you? And I was like, yes, of course you can.’
She also discussed how she felt about her body after her mastectomy surgery.
Julia said: ‘I didn’t want to look at my scars. I didn’t want to look down at my new breast. I wanted to get through the painkiller phase and getting over the antibiotics. I wanted to be up and walking. I wanted to be back out in nature.
‘I wanted to feel more like me and then be ready to look myself in the mirror and go, right, this is the new me and from now on in, this is it. This is where we’re going. This is who we are and let’s move forward from this point.
‘My mum, bless her, lovely, Chrissy, she wanted to see straight away and so I let her see, and she just whispered by me and said, it’s beautiful, Jules. You know you’re going to be, it’s lovely.’

Julia shares her son Zephyr, 13, and her twin girls, Xanthe and Zena, eight, with her property developer husband, Gerard Cunningham
Julia has also previously spoke about the moment she told her husband, Gerard Cunningham, that she had cancer around four years ago.
Appearing on Davina McCall’s Begin Again podcast, she said: ‘I told him, and we cried. And I said, ‘I’ll do whatever I have to do to get through this. I will do whatever it is’.’
Determined to fight, she expressed her readiness to face any challenge that may pop up ahead.
‘If I have to lose a breast, I’ll have to lose my hair. If I have to go, whatever it is I need to do,’ she said.
‘I’m going to do what I need to do to get through this.’

And during an interview on a podcast from Dr Oscar Duke, Bedside Manners, she explained that she children immediately asked if she was going to loose her hair or if she will die

Julia has also previously spoke about the moment she told her husband, Gerard Cunningham, that she had cancer around four years ago
Julia said fighting cancer is not the same for everyone. She explained: ‘Every type of cancer is different. Every type of breast cancer is different.
‘You’ll have a friend who’s gone through breast cancer, and she and I will sit down and have a story, and we’ll have had a different tumour in a different place, and it will behave differently.
‘It’s very complicated. And that’s the reason why the war on cancer hasn’t been won yet.’
In 2023, she spoke about her determination to ‘stay alive’ two years on from her breast cancer diagnosis.
The journalist and TV presenter had the tumour, two lymph glands and her left breast removed before having reconstruction surgery.
Julia has since revealed how her diagnosis changed her life, leading her to adopt a much healthier diet and go teetotal as she declared she will do everything possible to see her children grow up.

