Joan Bakewell, 90, feels 'serene' about dying

2023-04-17

‘At my age, death is waiting for you’: Dame Joan Bakewell, 90, candidly reveals she feels ‘serene’ about dying – amid her battle with cancer

Dame Joan Bakewell has revealed she felt ‘serene’ about the prospect of dying amid her battle with colon cancer.

The distinguished broadcaster, who turned 90 on Sunday, is undergoing chemotherapy and was operated on prior to Christmas after her cancer was detected during a routine examination.

Speaking to The Mirror the Labour peer said: ‘When you’re my age a lot of your friends have died already, dying is on the agenda, it’s waiting for you’.

‘I thought ‘Oh, it’s my turn. My turn to go down’. So I felt quite serene about it’.

Before adding with a laugh: ‘At my age a lot of people you have known have died. So I thought “Well if they can do it, I can do it”.

Honesty: Dame Joan Bakewell, 90, has revealed she felt ‘serene’ about the prospect of dying amid her battle with colon cancer (pictured in 2011)

Speaking her truth: The Labour peer said: ‘When you’re my age a lot of your friends have died already, dying is on the agenda, it’s waiting for you’ (pictured in 1976)

She went on to say she did ‘not feeling her age’ and revealed she had delayed her planned 90th birthday party until later in the year when she had completed chemo.

Joan revealed she had been diagnosed in January saying: ‘I’ve recovered from that (surgery). I’m feeling fine, and the chemotherapy is a mopping-up operation to make sure it doesn’t come back.’

The English journalist and television presenter, who has in the past spoken movingly about how powerless she felt when her sister was dying from breast cancer aged 58, said she’s feeling positive about her prognosis.

‘I’ve always been optimistic because I caught this cancer early on, and within a week I was in hospital having an operation,’ she said.

She’s continued working throughout her health battle, including on a new series of Landscape Artist of the Year.

In all, she only cancelled a single session of voiceover during her recovery period.

Baroness Bakewell, who was dubbed the ‘thinking man’s crumpet’ by humourist Frank Muir, inspired Harold Pinter’s Betrayal after she had an affair with the playwright when she was married to TV producer Michael Bakewell. Pinter was married to actress Vivien Merchant.

‘I went to the House of Lords this week, so I’ve been able to do everything I needed to do,’ the Labour peer said.

Fighting fit: She went on to say she did ‘not feeling her age’ and revealed she had delayed her 90th birthday party until she had completed her chemo

Baroness Bakewell has had a long and illustrious career in British media, first getting a start as a studio manager for BBC Radio and going on to host several programs in the 1980s, ’90s and early 2000s

Affair: Joan inspired Harold Pinter’s Betrayal after she had an affair with the playwright when she was married to TV producer Michael Bakewell. Pinter was married to actress Vivien Merchant (Joan and Harold pictured together in 1969)

‘I should be having chemotherapy once every two weeks, but I’ll still be out, and was at the ballet the other night.

‘I don’t let it interfere, as much as possible, but, obviously, I do as I’m told. You just have to get on with life.’

She adds that her work as patron of Breast Cancer Care has stood her in good stead.

‘I know and talk to people that have got repeated cancers and things like that and I know what it means to keep your spirits up and persist with the treatments that they have offered.

‘And, of course, I’ve been in a position to learn treatments have improved so much and cancer is no longer a death sentence – that’s why we need to catch it early and do all the tests that arise and go through it.’

She adds: ‘In a sense, it’s made me optimistic, which sounds odd.’

She’s also a published author, and was awarded a lifetime peerage in January 2011.

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