Caprice Bourret was forced to undergo life-saving surgery to remove a brain tumour.
The former supermodel was due to take part in this year’s series of The Jump, and had been training in the various winter sports, but pulled out of the show suddenly and unexpectedly in February.
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Caprice, 45, has now admitted it was because she had been diagnosed with the tumour, which was the size of a thumb. And the mum-of-two actually credits the reality series for saving her life, as show bosses made her see a doctor because she was suffering headaches and dizzy spells.
“I was diagnosed with a brain tumour. I found out while I was competing in the show and boy, was it more horrific than any of the challenges,” Caprice told Hello magazine.
“The Jump saved my life. I had headaches that were not going away and my vision was beginning to act up so the show’s production insisted I see their doctor.”
As mum to three-year-old twin boys Jax and Jett, Caprice admits she was terrified about what might happen if the surgery went wrong or wasn’t successful.
“My first thought was for my two little boys. I’m their rock and keep my family together. It was the scariest moment I’d ever experienced.”
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The businesswoman had already been through some tough injuries as she trained for The Jump, fracturing her ribs after hitting herself in the chest with her skis after flying off a ski jump.
At the time, she said: “You are training eight hours a day so I’ve been tired and had bad falls, aches and pains and bruises. I hurt my head and fractured my ribs when I was practising the ski jump.”
And she became the third celebrity to have to quit this recent series due to illness or injury.
But fortunately, posing on the cover of this week’s Hello magazine, the model and businesswoman is now looking fit and well and fully recovered.