Robin Gibb is battling liver cancer. The 61-year-old Bee Gee has been undergoing treatment for the disease for several months, and is now being cared for by his wife Dwina.
In recent weeks the star has appeared in public looking increasingly frail. He was taken to hospital last week following a 999 call from his £8million 12th-century home in Oxfordshire. He spent five hours in hospital on Tuesday before being allowed back home, where he was joined by his mother Barbara, 91, and older brother Barry, 65, who have flown in from America to be by his side.
Gibb was well enough to promote this year’s Poppy Appeal single, a cover of the Bee Gees hit I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You, on The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV last month – but his gaunt appearance fuelled concerns about his health. He had been treated for inflammation of the colon two weeks earlier. Last October he had surgery on his intestine following the same medical emergency that took the life of his twin brother Maurice eight years ago, and he cancelled a U.S. tour this April due to extreme stomach pain. Last month the singer tried to quash rumours about his health, saying: ‘I’m feeling great, absol-utely great.’ But despite his optimism, the NHS says the outlook for those with liver cancer is poor as most cases are detected late.
Mr Gibb, who does not smoke or drink and eats healthily, said last year that he spends 20 minutes a day sweating in a ‘detoxification hut’. He and Dwina, 58, an ordained druid priestess, are reportedly considering a visit to a Native American medicine man for a possible natural cure. The couple famously have an ‘accepting’ marriage, which has survived Gibb fathering a daughter with their housekeeper, Claire Yang. Miss Yang, 35, and Snow Robin, three, now live in Oxfordshire, five miles from the converted monastery where the Gibbs and their 28-year-old son Robin-John reside. Gibb also has two adult children from his first marriage to secretary Molly Hullis.
Last night, in an interview for Sky Arts, he described the loss of Maurice, who died from complications following an operation to correct an intestinal blockage, as ‘something I haven’t accepted’. He added: ‘I just imagine he is out there somewhere and I will bump into him one day.’
Last December, he said of his surgery: ‘The gastroenterologist told me my intestine was two hours from bursting. You realise that however much you don’t think about death – or think “that’s for other people” – you’re just an organism living from day to day. I’m just grateful I’m here. Losing people makes you realise you’ve got to grab life – not put things off. I don’t have too much faith in destiny, or an afterlife. This is it.The Bee Gees disbanded after Maurice’s death, having sold 200million records. The brothers had lost sibling Andy in 1988, aged 30. He had struggled with cocaine addiction.
In recent weeks the star has appeared in public looking increasingly frail. He was taken to hospital last week following a 999 call from his £8million 12th-century home in Oxfordshire. He spent five hours in hospital on Tuesday before being allowed back home, where he was joined by his mother Barbara, 91, and older brother Barry, 65, who have flown in from America to be by his side.
Gibb was well enough to promote this year’s Poppy Appeal single, a cover of the Bee Gees hit I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You, on The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV last month – but his gaunt appearance fuelled concerns about his health. He had been treated for inflammation of the colon two weeks earlier. Last October he had surgery on his intestine following the same medical emergency that took the life of his twin brother Maurice eight years ago, and he cancelled a U.S. tour this April due to extreme stomach pain. Last month the singer tried to quash rumours about his health, saying: ‘I’m feeling great, absol-utely great.’ But despite his optimism, the NHS says the outlook for those with liver cancer is poor as most cases are detected late.
Mr Gibb, who does not smoke or drink and eats healthily, said last year that he spends 20 minutes a day sweating in a ‘detoxification hut’. He and Dwina, 58, an ordained druid priestess, are reportedly considering a visit to a Native American medicine man for a possible natural cure. The couple famously have an ‘accepting’ marriage, which has survived Gibb fathering a daughter with their housekeeper, Claire Yang. Miss Yang, 35, and Snow Robin, three, now live in Oxfordshire, five miles from the converted monastery where the Gibbs and their 28-year-old son Robin-John reside. Gibb also has two adult children from his first marriage to secretary Molly Hullis.
Last night, in an interview for Sky Arts, he described the loss of Maurice, who died from complications following an operation to correct an intestinal blockage, as ‘something I haven’t accepted’. He added: ‘I just imagine he is out there somewhere and I will bump into him one day.’
Last December, he said of his surgery: ‘The gastroenterologist told me my intestine was two hours from bursting. You realise that however much you don’t think about death – or think “that’s for other people” – you’re just an organism living from day to day. I’m just grateful I’m here. Losing people makes you realise you’ve got to grab life – not put things off. I don’t have too much faith in destiny, or an afterlife. This is it.The Bee Gees disbanded after Maurice’s death, having sold 200million records. The brothers had lost sibling Andy in 1988, aged 30. He had struggled with cocaine addiction.
