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Mrs Brown’s Boys star Dermot O’Neill has shared that his wife Patricia has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, after she nursed him through his own battle with the disease.
Patricia ‘Chickie’ Maguire, 60, discovered she had stage four cancer when she travelled to Spain to have a hernia removed, only for doctors to share they were unable to operate after discovering tumours in her stomach.
Dermot, 74, who is best known as Granddad on Mrs Brown’s Boys, is now caring for his spouse while she undergoes chemotherapy in Ireland.
The actor was himself diagnosed with the disease after discovering a lump in his throat in 2019, but was given the all-clear the following year.
In a heartbreaking interview, Patricia shared doctors have told her she only has months to live.
She said: ‘Dermot has been amazing. He’s old school – a real man’s man. Being 14 years younger than him, he never believed he would see me being sick.
Mrs Brown’s Boys star Dermot O’Neill has shared that his wife Patricia has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, after she nursed him through his own battle with the disease
‘When the doctor told me it was stage four cancer, he said I had months to live, rather than years. I was choking when I got the news. They can’t reverse the cancer, only prolong my life.’
Patricia said the hardest moment came when she broke the news to her two sons Salvador, 39, and Evan, 24.
She told The Sun: ‘Dermot put his hand on my knee and both boys held each of my hands, and we all hugged and cried. I told them it’s a fact of life, I have cancer in my body. We have to deal with this.
‘What else can we do? I have started chemotherapy — if I can get six months out of it we can roll for another six months.’
During the interview, Patricia shared her fears that Dermot was struggling with the impact of her terminal diagnosis,
Dermot and Patricia at one of Mrs Brown’s Boys creator Brendan O’Carroll’s in Dublin, and were together for 20 years before they married in 2012.
The pair had seven children between them from previously relationships before they met, and Patricia shared Dermot proposed via text message while he was awau touring with Mrs Brown’s Boys.
The actor, who has played Granddad on the BBC sitcom since 2011, was diagnosed with cancer in 2019 after finding a lump in his neck.
Dermot, who is best known as Granddad on Mrs Brown’s Boys, is now caring for his spouse while she undergoes chemotherapy in Ireland
After undergoing treatment, he feared the cancer had returned when he found swelling in his neck, and subsequent tests were delayed by the Covid pandemic.
But he later learned he had the all-clear telling The Sun:’I’m over the moon, It’s such a load off my mind.
‘I had been living a nightmare with a swollen neck and this thing flashing through my mind, ”Is that the cancer back?” Now I can go back and live my life.’
Mrs Brown’s Boys has been a regular feature on the BBC’s Christmas schedules for more than a decade.
The show has also had several mini-series runs, including a four-part series last year, which was the first since 2013.
In the programme Brendan’s character, who is known affectionately as ‘mammy’ in the series, is a foul-mouthed Irish mother.
