Stephen Fry is recovering from surgery for prostate cancer and said “it all seemed to go pretty well”.
The broadcaster, who had his operation in early January, said on his website: “They took the prostate out,” adding: “So far as we know it’s all been got.”
He said it was an “aggressive” cancer but it “doesn’t seem” to have spread.
The former QI host added: “For the moment I’m fit and well and happy and I just wanted to let you know because rumours had started to swirl.”
In the video on his site, he said: “You have to recover and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
He said his family and “my darling, darling husband” Elliott Spencer had been “just marvellous”.
“Here’s hoping I’ve got another few years left on this planet because I enjoy life at the moment and that’s a marvellous thing to be able to say, and I’d rather it didn’t go away,” he added.
His condition was given a Gleason Score – a scale used to rate the aggressiveness of prostate cancer – of nine out of 10 before the operation, in which surgeons removed 11 lymph nodes.
Fry added that he had to get used to the idea of the diagnosis, saying: “I went around saying to myself, ‘I’ve got cancer. Good heavens, Stephen, you’re not the sort of person who gets cancer.’
“I know it’s an old cliche but you don’t think it’s going to happen to you.”
He urged men to get their PSA [prostate specific antigen] levels checked with a doctor.
“I generally felt my life was saved by this early intervention, so I would urge any of you men of a certain age to get your PSA levels checked,” he said.
NHS Choices says there are pros and cons of having the test, which can be unreliable and cause unnecessary worry.
Source: BBC