Stephen Mulhern has spoken out about the’worrying’ sickness that kept him off the air last year.
After being sent to the hospital in March 2022 with an undisclosed ailment, the 46-year-old celebrity missed a few episodes of Ant and Dec‘s Saturday Night Takeaway.
He had to spend a few weeks rehabilitating on ‘doctor’s instructions,’ and he’s now opened out about the ‘worrying’ scenario.
Stephen has yet to clarify the nature of his disease, but he has provided some further information on his health.
‘It’s really bizarre because this is the first time I’ve ever explained – because I keep myself to myself – but I was in hospital. I had to have those two weeks off Saturday Night Takeaway,’ he told The Sun.
‘Now we’re all right. But it wasn’t good. It was a bit of a worrying time.’
Last year, he told fans he was ‘on the mend’ as he revealed why he’d gone ‘quiet’ for a while.
He wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, at the time: ‘Hello all, Sorry I’ve been quiet on here recently and thank you for all your lovely messages. I’ve had some time off and been resting up on doctor’s orders.’
He later added: ‘I’m on the mend, I’m happy to say, and looking forward to getting back to work soon.
‘In the meantime… I’ll put my feet up and watch Saturday Night Takeaway tonight with the rest of you lot. Please don’t miss me too much! Lots of love, Stephen. X.’
Stephen is now prepared to host the Deal Or No Deal reboot, which he describes as one of the’most difficult’ positions in television.
He added to The Sun: ‘You’ve got to use every trick in the book because you know there will be people that will be crying, there will be people who are angry, people who are gutted, overjoyed.
‘So you do just come out and go, “Wow, that was like a boxing match”. When I finish filming, I stay in the hotel next door and I just go to bed.’
Meanwhile, Stephen recently stated that he is in negotiations with ITV to host Dancing On Ice, having previously fronted spin-off programme Defrosted and stood in for Phillip Schofield when he was missing due to Covid.
The post has been empty since the former This Morning host, 61, resigned from all of his projects with the network after confessing to lying about a ‘unwise but not illegal’ romance with a junior member of staff.
He recently told the Daily Mail: ‘We are talking about it.
‘But I promise you now that nothing is confirmed but if it happens, it will be absolutely amazing… if it doesn’t, look, it doesn’t. I promise you I would tell you if we had it confirmed at this point.’
