Debbie McGee didn't tell Giovanni Pernice about breast cancer: 'I haven't seen him'

The 60-year-old radio host, who was married to magician Paul Daniels until his death in 2016, announced she had undergone surgery to remove two tumours in her left breast earlier this month. The surgery came after she was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in October. In an interview with The Sun, Debbie McGee said she hadn’t told Giovanni Pernice, 28, about the cancer, saying: “I haven’t told many other people apart from my family. We’re in touch quite a bit and he’s on the arena tour at the moment.”

The former Strictly Come Dancing finalist said hadn’t been in touch with the dancer as much lately because of his busy schedule.

“But we’ve still been in touch,” she told the publication. “We send each other jokes and different things and make each other laugh still.

“I haven’t seen Giovanni since the new series of Strictly began because I was really busy and he was starting the show.

“I’ve seen him once because I came along to one of the recordings after Blackpool but I had to go because I was working the next day, so I didn’t stay in the green room very long,” she added.

Debbie, who made her name as Paul’s assistant in his magic shows, went on to reveal she didn’t have enough time to meet Giovanni’s now girlfriend Ashley Roberts, 37, during her visit to Strictly.

“I just spoke to all the ones I knew and I got to meet Faye Tozer but I didn’t get to meet Ashley,” she said.

Meanwhile, Debbie has been given the all-clear by doctors after her surgery.

She will be regularly monitored to ensure the cancer hasn’t returned.

The star said she had thought of her late husband during her treatment, saying the diagnosis “scared me to death”.

Paul died almost three years ago, just weeks after being diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour.

He and Debbie had been married for 28 years.

She said she believed her cancer had been the result of the stress and grief she experiences since his death.

In a previous interview with the BBC, she said Paul didn’t know he was dying.

Recalling how his final weeks were filled with laughter together, she said: “The tumour was pressing on the part of the brain that processes information.

“So although he was talking and communicating and knowing who I was and everything, he actually wasn’t taking in new information, which is actually quite hard to tell.

“On the day he was diagnosed, the tumour had already spread so far that they knew he only had a few weeks to live,” she said.

source: express.co.uk