Dame Zandra Rhodes kept her cancer diagnosis private to avoid losing work.

Dame Zandra Rhodes kept her cancer diagnosis private to avoid losing work

Dame Zandra Rhodes kept her cancer diagnosis private to avoid losing work

The 84-year-old fashion and textile designer - who has worked with the likes of Queen legend Freddie Mercury and Princess Diana over the course of her career - was given six months to live in 2020 when doctors discovered a tumour in her bile duct and kept schtum as she underwent an intense course of treatment during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

She told The Observer magazine: "“It was COVID then, so I realised no one need know, and I decided not to tell anyone because if people knew I wouldn’t get any more work!"

Zandra - who declared earlier this year that she is now in remission - believes that work and life are so "entwined" that the shock diagnosis actually made her "focus" on the kind of legacy she would like to leave behind as she set about establishing the The Zandra Rhodes Foundation to inspire future generations of designers.

She said: "I think the two are so entwined… And I don’t think I had time for that bit. “It was very positive, actually. I feel like it was a warning, that I had to get my life in order, get everything done. It made me focus. And if it wasn’t for that I’d have never formed a foundation and never found out I had 6,000 dresses all hidden away that now I’m sending to museums across the world, never finished the book. So… it's been rather wonderful, really.”

The Emmy Award-winning star has never been married, and chose not to have children but admitted her unorthodox choices have given her the chance to live a "fabulous" life.

She said: "My sister has four children and is a wonderful mother. I am a successful fashion designer who has led a very different but fabulous life."

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