I'm A Celeb's Martin Kemp says brain tumour surgery left him with life-changing side effect
During Wednesday night's (19.11.25) episode of ITV's I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!, Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp opened up about how his brain tumour surgery left him dyslexic.
Martin Kemp's brain tumour surgery left him dyslexic - and feeling like a "train wreck".
Even though the Spandau Ballet bassist fully recovered after having an operation to have the two cancer growths removed in 1995, he now has difficulty reading as words at the end of sentences appear jumbled.
In a candid conversation during Wednesday night's (19.11.25) episode of ITV's I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!, Martin, 64, shared: "I'm dyslexic. I struggle with reading."
His fellow campmates, comedienne Ruby Wax, 72, and TV personality Jack Osbourne, 40, wondered if the Gold hitmaker listens to audiobooks instead, to which Martin does not.
The performer was working on a show in Canada, in which he played a professor, and he had to go into make-up to put on a bald cap.
And when the hair and make-up artists pulled it on, they saw a lump on the back of Martin's head.
The former EastEnders actor continued: "I could hear the whole of the make-up wagon go quiet because you could see this lump on the back of my head. But it was skull, it was bone. So it stretched out.
"And what it was, the tumour that was underneath it, that had been there for about 12 years, had run out of space to grow in the little gap, so it started to grow into the skull, into the bone. So it started to show itself as a lump.
"And within two days, I was back home having my head cut open."
During the operation, surgeons found another tumour underneath the big tumour. And the hidden tumour would have killed Martin.
He said: "The one in the middle was the dangerous one.
"So they cut this one out, and they zapped me with stereotactic radiation.”
After fellow show co-star Kelly Brook asked Martin if he "lost memory or anything", he revealed: "For a while I lost everything, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t see in one eye.
"I was a train wreck afterwards. Now I have a few little bits and pieces, and one of them is dyslexia."
Ruby asked: "So you didn't have dyslexia beforehand?"
Martin replied: "No."
Speaking about how the ordeal impacted his family, Martin added: "It was tough. It wasn't just tough for me, it was tough for everyone around me. You know, mum and dad were still around then, my brother [Gary Kemp] and my wife [Shirlie Kemp], it's a terrifying thing to watch someone go through that.
"One minute, I was fitter and healthier than I've ever been in my life, next minute, I was in a mess. It was like being in a car crash. I thought I was dying, and it was a tough one."
In a confessional, Martin said: "It took me a long time to recover. Your body and everything about you wants you to get back to normal. You want to get back to people not feeling sorry for you because you were sick.
"But does it give you a new perspective? It does for a short while, but not forever."
He added to his campmates: "It was a test."
