An emotional Michelle Heaton broke down in tears as she discussed having to one day tell her six-year-old daughter that she might need to get her breasts removed.
In 2012, the former Liberty X singer found out she had the BRCA2 gene mutation and decided to undergo a double mastectomy followed by a hysterectomy in 2014. She had an 85 per cent risk of developing breast cancer and a 40 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.
Michelle’s grandmother and great grandmother both died of cancer in their thirties.
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On 11 January 2012, Michelle welcomed daughter Faith Michelle Hanley.
Speaking about one day having to have the conversation with Faith about the possibility of having the gene, Michelle broke down in tears.
She told The Sun Online: “I mean, as soon as you asked me that I need to swallow because I can feel a lump and it’s horrible to look at her…”
Read more: Michelle Heaton opens up about needing therapy
An emotional Michelle carried on: “In my head, the best way I can explain it is that when she’s 18 and she gets offered the test I hope that science has evolved and we’ve found another option other than what I’ve had to choose, or genetics has evolved.”
Michelle also said it upsets her to see her daughter cry “because of what mummy has irrationally done”.
The singer, who is also mum to four-year-old AJ, is going through an early menopause.
She added: “Is it me being a [expletive] wife or a really annoyed mummy or is it the hormones that I’m lacking in my body? And the answer is I don’t know and I can’t go around blaming them, but they have to have had some kind of change to my body because I really wasn’t like this before.”
Read more: Michelle Heaton opens up about early menopause “hell”
Michelle’s husband Hugh previously spoke about his wife’s mood swings, telling BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast that the pair have had some “dark times” over the last five years.
“There have been days when I’ve worried about going to work and leaving Michelle with the kids because she’s been a loose cannon.”
Together, the pair spoke to a menopause counsellor and Michelle took Hugh to meet other men whose partners were going through a similar experience.
Hugh said: “I’m not overly open, but listening to the other guys talk is quite insightful because it’s not something you go [into] with mates at work or in the gym. You don’t sit down and go, ‘How’s your Mrs getting on with menopause?'”
While Michelle said: “I feel like almost a different person… because we’re more open.”
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