Celebrity Big Brother's Trisha Goddard makes poignant vow as she enters house with terminal cancer

Trisha Goddard says she is going into to show you can still “live your best life” when you have cancer.

The TV host, 67, is living with incurable stage four breast cancer but she does not want to be seen as a victim and insists she's not on the scrap heap. says: “I've been asked to do it every single year, and I’ve always thought, ‘Are you kidding me?’.

"When I told my daughter she made a really good point. I’ve got my and I’ve really been banging on about the language used when it comes to cancer and about services that are needed so people can live their best lives.

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“I shout into Instagram but being on would show people how you can live successfully with cancer and not be so scared of dying that you become scared of living. So that’s why I’m doing it.”

On not wanting to be seen as a victim, she adds: “That’s exactly it. You talk to people and you say you have stage four metastatic cancer. But there’s stage four and there's stage four. You can have a few cells and you're stage four. You can have cancer in your brain, your heart, you know, God forbid, and you're stage four.

“So people hear metastatic and they don't think about the fact that there are people with metastatic breast cancer being treated by my oncologist who have been around for twenty years. So it's a huge thing. But people hear metastatic and it's terminal, which isn't used in the medical , it’s life limiting. You’re written off and there’s just pity towards you.

“Anyone going through it, and the said it perfectly, you’re living with uncertainty, but all you get is pity. I can categorically tell you there are lots of people in lots of industries who are living with cancer who've never said a word for that reason. I was doing something the other day and a person revealed to me that they were about to go and get their treatment plan, they were whispering and said, ‘I can't let anybody else know about this because I might lose my job’. That’s so wrong.”

Despite being upbeat Trisha has had to make allowances for her illness and the show. The team treating her have been in discussions with to make sure she has the support she needs in there. The ITV team will also have to make special arrangements for Trisha.

She explains: “So my oncologist is my biggest cheerleader and is working with the Big Brother team. I've got a special therapist who's happy to work with the medic on the show. My palliative care team - and when I say that word everybody screams and runs away, but it's symptom treatment - is working with the team here too. And then when it comes to my treatment, I had one infusion on Monday, so I've got to jump on a plane and go straight back to have the next one as soon as the show is over.

“I’ve got a bag full of meds that I normally have which will be with me in the house. So my oncologist has planned my treatment around the production schedule.”

She added: “I've changed since going through all of this and I've gone through scary times and now I'm on this drug it's a lot more optimistic. But what I’ve been through does strip away one’s filters rather on a lot! Have I changed? I don't suffer fools lightly, but I don't think I'm nasty. I've got one liners and looks and things like that. But I can't stand bullies and people going for people. I never have been able to, but everything I’ve been through lately has just heightened everything, I think.”

Trisha is one of 13 celebrity housemates who entered the house tonight for the show.

She was previously diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2008 and later recovered, however back in February 2024, it returned. Trisha recently said one of her motivations behind sharing her ongoing cancer news stemmed from the weight of shouldering the secret.

She also hates people sharing with her stories about family and friends who have died from cancer, saying it is unhelpful for her.

She added: “I’ve got a bet on with my husband that someone will tell me about a loved one with it. Someone will do the pity thing. Someone will suggest some alternative medicine. I could play bingo with the audience, they can tick those off as people say it! It’s just what people say. If there are any other housemates who have gone through cancer then they will get it, but we all have different stories. There are general things you just don’t want to hear.”

Trisha said that her legacy would be “giving people a chance” and helping to get others into the TV industry from all walks of life.

Asked if she could win CBB, she said: “I haven't even thought about it. I don't think of myself as popular. One of the nurses, when they found out who I was after a year and a half, came and said, 'I heard you’re popular!'

"I was on CNN all the time and they’d watch it but I had my wig on and full make up, not how I was at the hospital when she saw me. I assumed she was talking about the fact I always bring chocolate in for the nurses and she was like, 'No, you’re popular!' But I never thought of myself as popular or a winner. I've never won a thing in my life.

“People go into the house for different reasons. I'm not an influencer who has to increase my base. I don't have to prove who I am career wise. The money helps, let's be honest. But I've been asked every year. I've been in much more dire situations financially and still turned it down because I didn't have a reason. I have to have a reason for doing something. I'm in the house to get my message across, whether I come out in week one or at the end.”

Trisha married her husband Allen in 2022. She has two children, Billie and Madison, from her marriage to Peter Gianfrancesco.
She is best known for fronting her television talk show Trisha between 1998 and 2010 on ITV but went on to have other TV shows and has covered for other talk show hosts more recently on Five.

*Celebrity Big Brother continues weekdays at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.

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