Former Crystal Palace chairman and renowned broadcaster Simon Jordan has revealed he is recovering from prostate cancer and has undergone surgery.
Jordan, 55, who owned Premier League club Palace for a decade and was formerly one of football's youngest chairmen, opened up on his health scare live on talkSPORT.
The pundit had been absent from the station for several weeks, but he bravely returned on Tuesday morning to candidly detail the reason behind his hiatus.
In doing so, he also issued an impassioned plea for men to get themselves tested and admitted he was only checked over after a conversation with a friend.
'I'm recovering from cancer, I've had some quite significant surgery, two weeks ago for prostate cancer,' Jordan announced during his show with Jim White. 'As you can see I'm able to come in today but it will take some time to recover.
'The reason I bring it up is that I think it is an important message.
'If I hadn't have had surgery, I wouldn't be here. There's a real issue of this about awareness. If you don't address it with a simple test, one in eight white men and one in four men get prostate cancer.
'I wanted to impart the important message to get tested. I've sitting here with six holes in my stomach, peeing a bit of blood but I am here.'
Jordan then added: 'What would you rather die of, embarrassment? There's lots of people who have had this sort of situation. It is something men shouldn't ignore.
'Men do need to pay attention and I didn't enjoy the surgery but I had a top, top surgeon. I have to recover for a bit and have a number of tests going forwards.'
Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men, and more than 52,000 men are diagnosed every year on average - including 143 men every day.
Jordan became Palace's owner in 2000 and was named the youngest chairman of a top-flight club as a result, having been 33 when he took the reins at Selhurst Park.
However, in 2012 he admitted he had lost £40million on his venture.
He shares a daughter with his former partner Suzi Walker and a son with his current partner, Michelle Dewberry.
Jordan, who enjoys boxing and tennis among his other passions, is a successful entrepreneur and businessman who published his autobiography ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ in 2012.
His autobiography details 'the rise and fall of a man who dared to dream'.
Jordan made his fortune through his Pocket Phone Shop chain before purchasing Crystal Palace in 2000 at the age of 32.
He had supported the club since he was a child and his dad, Peter Jordan, had played for the youth team.
But in 2010, the club went into administration, Jordan said 'it felt like someone had ripped my guts outs'.
'When you are having to claw your way back into the world and lost a vast amount of money and a lot of reputation and credibility, it’s almost masochistic to write about events.
'But I tried to be honest with myself. I made mistakes and they cost the football club very little. They cost me virtually everything,' he said when speaking to The Times in 2012.
Despite this, Jordan says he still looks back on this as an achievement, he added: 'How many people in their life get to a position where they can own a football club?'
Known for being a bit of a 'prankster', Jordan recently paid off a £1,000 bet to his TalkSport co-host Jim White in 20p coins.
Earlier in the football season , White had said that Newcastle United would finish in the top six, so Jordan 'paid-up'.
In 2019, he is also seen to pull a prank on his partner Dewberry as she gets out the shower.
In 2020, Dewberry shared a touching photo of the couple with their baby boy as they left neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after six weeks.
Alongside the snap, she posted a lengthy caption as she reflected on their 'incredibly challenging, upsetting and draining' journey after her son was born prematurely at 31 weeks.
The Apprentice-star confirmed her relationship with partner Jordan in July 2019.
According to an insider the pair met when they were both on the Matthew Wright show and he then took her to The Specials concert in London.
Talking to Virgin Radio in July, Jordan spoke of how he successfully got The Specials to reform by offering them £1million.
He said: 'I was determined, this band will reform. I was in that frame of mind where I had the influence and the ability, and the money to make decisions.'
Dewberry, who grew up on a Hull council estate and dropped out of school at 16 with just two GCSEs, shot to stardom after becoming Lord Alan Sugar's Apprentice in 2006.
In the 14 years which followed, she forged a successful career in business and TV, and even aimed to become an MP for the Brexit Party, which ended in defeat as she lost to Labour's Emma Hardy late last year.
In April 2021, GB-News anchor Dewberry came to the defence of Jordan against internet trolls.
Jordan had posted a tweet which said: 'This is how players view things. Pay us 90% of all money generated so football is almost bankrupt.'
This prompted an anonymous user to respond with: 'I hope your loved ones die in a terrible but preventable accident you piece of s***.'
Dewberry responded to this and said: 'Tweets like this (& worse) are the reason that social media sites should not allow true anonymity.
'If you want to spout stuff like this (purely because someone has a different opinion to you) then indeed you are able to, but you should be held accountable for it.'