Source: home.nzcity.co.nz
Author: staff

The 62-year-old actor – who has three adult children with late first wife Kathryn Spath and Matteo, seven, and Emilia, four, with wife Felicity Blunt – was diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2017 and he admitted he reached a period where he “didn’t see the point of living” if he would no longer be able to enjoy the pleasure of enjoying a meal with his loved ones again

He said: “I was a cranky patient. Because I was miserable. I thought it was never going to go away. And I was like, how did this happen…

“There were times when I thought I was never going to be able to eat with my family again. The things I love to do are eat and taste and drink. And I love to do them with the people I love.

“If I can’t do that, then I really don’t see the point of living.

“I spent months and months up in my room, listening to everybody. Like a ghost in my own house. People coming and going. And I would go down and I would cook, but I couldn’t eat it – but I’d want to cook.

“Sometimes it almost made me ill to do it, but I wanted to do it. It was pretty f****** awful.”

The ‘Supernova’ star has since gone into remission but there are still some foods and drinks he can’t enjoy the way he used to.

He told You magazine: “Since I wrote ‘Taste’, the list of things I can eat has got longer. I think I’m probably at the point where I don’t know how much better it’s going to get. This is what the doctors have told me, but I’m at a very good place.

“Can I just tuck into a big piece of steak? No, I still can’t. And with a burger, there has to be a high-fat content, which is what I like anyway. So that’s fine. I don’t believe in lean burgers. What’s the point?

“If the wine’s too warm, or has too many tannins, it hurts too much. Because this is all brand new.”