Jonathan Ross freely acknowledges that the diagnosis of fibromyalgia in his daughter has taught him how to be a more understanding and helpful dad.
The 62-year-old TV host revealed to the audience a year ago that her daughter Betty, who is 31 years old, had been diagnosed with the chronic ailment that causes agony throughout the body.
Since then, Betty has been undergoing therapy, and the judge on The Masked Singer provided an update just before the start of the new year. Betty’s siblings are Harvey, who is 28, and Honey, who is 25.
Talk show presenter Jonathan reflected on the previous year during his appearance on the final episode of Loose Women in the year 2022. He discussed how he is now more open to listening to his eldest child and what she requires.
‘She’s got fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome and POTs syndrome as well, which is where your heart rate shoots up,’ he began.
‘It’s been a tough couple of years for her in particular, but she is getting slowly better.’
Jonathan then explained that Betty ‘definitely’ had Covid at the very beginning of the pandemic, and doctors initially thought her signs of fibromyalgia were long Covid.
‘Like a lot of things, they don’t really know,’ he added.
‘But, we found a thing called the Perins treatment, she looked it up online because she’s a smart young woman, so she has to want to do the treatment.
‘I can’t just say to her, “Try this, try that…”, if she thinks it’s wrong in some way, she’s not going to enter into it and it’s not worth doing.’
Jonathan continued to say that, as Betty’s treatment continues, she’s ‘definitely showing some improvements.’
‘She still can’t walk very far,’ he stated. ‘We got her an electric wheelchair this summer so we can at least go out and go for walks with the dog, and that’s lifted her spirits a lot.
‘Because that’s the problem, as anyone out there who’s got someone with a long-term illness, it’s the depression, being stuck indoors, and not being able to join in with things. Even stairs are a challenge. If we’re going out, we have to give her plenty of time to get ready, come downstairs, then have a rest.’
But, the process is helping him ‘listen more’ as her dad: ‘Even if my wife tells me something is wrong in the day, I have to remind myself that, sometimes, I just need to listen.
‘My immediate instinct is, there’s a problem, fix it, not there’s a problem, share it. So I really struggle.’
He concluded by admitting the whole thing is a ‘learning’ experience for their family.
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12:30pm on ITV.
