Stanley Johnson, father of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has revealed he has undergone surgery for colon cancer at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, sharing a cheerful photograph from his hospital bed as he recovers.
The 85-year-old former Tory MEP posted the image on social media following a successful operation last Friday to remove half of his colon, captioning it with characteristic wit: “I am enjoying a brief summer break at the Royal Marsden, destination of choice.”
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Stanley revealed the cancer was discovered almost by chance during a routine chest scan late last year. “Late last year I was having a scan and this brilliant professor, Margaret Johnson — no relation — examined everything,” he said. “She said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with your chest, but there’s something odd further down.’ My local NHS doctor, Daniel Dietch, insisted that I should follow up on the anomaly. On Friday last week, [surgeons] dealt with this obstruction. I hope to get out of the hospital this Friday. I have been blessed with this stroke of luck.”
True to form, Stanley has already set his sights on his next adventure, expressing plans to travel to Tibet to examine glaciers once he has recovered — following a recent trip to China with his son Max for a television documentary.
His daughter, journalist and television personality Rachel Johnson, said her “incredible” father looked much better following the operation, while Carrie Johnson, wife of Boris, responded to her father-in-law’s post with a love heart.
Stanley is a father of six and has been married twice. He had four children — Boris, Rachel, Jo and Leo — with his first wife, painter Charlotte Wahl, who died in September 2021 at the age of 79. He later had two further children, Julia and Maximillian, with Jennifer Kidd. His son Boris served as Prime Minister from December 2019, leading the country through the coronavirus pandemic. Jo Johnson served as MP for Orpington from 2010 to 2019, while Rachel is a prominent writer and broadcaster and Leo works as a filmmaker and entrepreneur.
Stanley himself has become a familiar face on television in his own right, having appeared on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and Celebrity Hunted, among other reality programmes.
