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In recent weeks there has been a lot of speculation about Thomas Gottschalk’s health. Now the presenter has publicly confirmed that he has cancer. “I think it’s time we put our cards on the table. I have cancer,” she said in an interview with “Bild”, which he gave together with his wife Karina.
Second operation and stressful diagnosis
Karina Gottschalk explains: “Thomas had a serious, complicated cancer operation almost four months ago. The diagnosis was severe. Epithelioid angiosarcoma. A rare, malignant tumor that arises from the cells of the blood vessels. Thomas was operated on immediately. They had to remove part of both the ureters and the bladder.”
The pathology findings followed shortly afterwards. “Thomas urgently needed a second operation because the cancer affected much more tissue than expected.” After he was allowed to leave the clinic two weeks later, Gottschalk didn’t allow himself a break. He had to keep committed commitments and contracts. “Looking back, that was probably my biggest mistake,” he says today.
According to his wife, Gottschalk still has to take strong opiates for the pain. At home he is still “funny, cheeky and in a good mood”. But it was only at the Bambi awards that the couple realized what side effects the medication had. “He was in shock. He had a blackout. When he said that, it wasn’t a lie,” said Karina Gottschalk.
Public appearances cause irritation
Gottschalk recently caused confusion and speculation in two appearances with sometimes confusing statements. He also caused astonishment during another television appearance on Friday evening. Two weeks after his criticized Bambi moderation, he himself was awarded the Austrian TV award Diamant-Romy.
At the award ceremony in Kitzbühel he seemed confused again, his voice was shaking. He was obviously particularly irritated by the speaking time available to him. He was already disoriented at the Bambi gala and got confused several times.
Side effects of the medication and approaching withdrawal
About his misfires, the 75-year-old says: “I wasn’t prepared for something like that to ever happen to me. With these tablets I feel like I’m stuck with my head in a washing machine.” When asked why he didn’t cancel the Romy event, he replied: “Then I would have been met with even more malice. Besides, I’m old school and fulfill my obligations.” The doctors forbade him to stop taking the medication before the performance.
At the end of the interview he was insightful: “With Romy I realized there was no point. I can’t perform anymore. I have to get well.” Gottschalk announced that he would withdraw from show business after a TV broadcast on December 6th.