Martin Kemp has revealed what kind of funeral he would like, after predicting he has 10 years to live.
The Spandau Ballet bassist, 62, was diagnosed with two brain tumors in the 1990s and had to undergo radiotherapy and surgery to remove them.
And he recently told his son Román, 31, that the diagnoses left him “resigned to the fact that he was going to die.”
Speaking on the first episode of his and Roman’s podcast. FFS! My dad is Martin Kempaptly titled Death, Martin and Roman were candid about the topic.
At one point, Roman asked Martin how much longer he thinks he’ll be alive. Martin replies: “I’ll be very honest with you, 10 years.”
Martin Kemp has revealed what kind of funeral he would like, after predicting he has 10 years to live.
Speaking on the first episode of his and Roman’s FFS podcast. My Dad Is Martin Kemp, aptly titled Death, Martin and Roman got candid about it (seen together)
And elsewhere in the podcast episode, the father-son duo discussed what kind of funeral Martin would want.
He said he would like the ceremony to be in a church, with ’80s singers playing tunes as people arrived.
Martin added that he would like 20 to 30 people to attend, including his wife Shirlie Holliman, and would like a montage of the best moments of his life to be played as part of the service.
However, he made one thing very clear to Roman: that he didn’t want the occasion to be sad.
He explained: “But don’t make it sad, don’t get close to sadness, make it funny, tell jokes, being sad is the last thing I would want.”
In the episode, Martin told his son Roman that his previous brain tumor diagnoses left him “resigned to the fact that he was going to die.”
While the benign growths were successfully removed and did not reappear, Martin continued to battle epilepsy as a side effect.
Martin explained: “I don’t know how much time I have left, but I will tell you that since I was 34, when I went through that whole brain tumor scare, I spent two years of my life thinking I was going to die.
‘And I think, after that, everything else, every day, every year, every month I’ve lived, every experience I’ve had has been an advantage.
He said he would like the ceremony to be in a church, with ’80s singers playing tunes as people arrived.
However, he made one thing very clear to Roman: that he didn’t want the occasion to be sad. He explained: “But don’t make it sad, don’t get close to being sad, make it funny, tell jokes, being sad is the last thing I would want.”
Martin added that he would like 20 to 30 people to attend, including his wife Shirlie Holliman, and would like a montage of the best moments of his life to be played as part of the service.
The Spandau Ballet bassist, 62, was diagnosed with two brain tumors in the 1990s and had to undergo radiotherapy and surgery to remove them.
And he recently told his son Román, 31, that the diagnoses left him “resigned to the fact that he was going to die” (seen together)
“I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I was going to die, but I was very happy with my lot, because I had had the most incredible experiences.”
Martín reiterated: ‘When I was 34 years old and I thought I was going to die, I spent two years thinking about it, I was quite happy, I thought: ‘If I leave, you know what? What a life’ and that was back then. So every year that I’m alive, every month that I’m alive now is like a bonus.”
He told his son that ‘I would be happy if I lived to be 80, that makes me 18!’
The star revealed that in the midst of his recovery, when he was still struggling with his brain function, EastEnders approached him with the role of Steve Owen.
Martín recalled in the Dish podcast in 2022: ‘Everyone around me was like, “Don’t do it, don’t do it. It’s going to ruin your career, don’t do it.”
‘Well, because they haven’t had any well-known actors on that show before, right? “Everyone had grown up with EastEnders, so I was the first of those famous actors to take part.”
Explaining his hesitation, Martin said, “My brain was still not working properly because of the operation.” To the point that sometimes if he wanted to walk to the left he would walk to the right, or like he couldn’t think about putting things in order, or anything like that.
‘The lines of learning were very there. When I was offered EastEnders it was a chance to get over it, so it wasn’t just me taking EastEnders because I thought yeah, it was a good job, but it was me trying to get my life back together.
As fans of the soap will know, Martin was successful – his villainous character’s run from 1998 to 2002 is still highly regarded today.
Speaking about his treatment in 2009, Martin revealed: “The first tumor was the size of a crushed grapefruit and the doctors could cut through my skull to get to it.”
‘What was scary was the second tumor; the doctors avoided talking about it. I was very worried about the little one in the middle of my head.’
Martin accepted his now infamous role as Steve Owen in EastEnders when he was at the height of his battle with epilepsy following tumors (with his on-screen wife Tamzin Outhwaite in 1998).
Martin explained: ‘I don’t know how much time I have left, but I will tell you that since I was 34, when I went through that whole brain tumor scare, I spent two years of my life thinking I was going to die.’
‘After two years, the doctors said it was growing and they wanted to remove it. But my wife didn’t want me to have surgery because she would leave a lot of collateral damage.
‘He found a doctor who said you could attack it with radiation, with an early form of Gamma Knife technology.
“After six months of treatment there were signs that he was dying and today there is nothing left of him.”
FFS! My Dad Is Martin Kemp streams on all podcast streaming services on Mondays and YouTube on Saturdays.