Jonnie Irwin has said he sometimes “removes himself” from his family home and instead spends time at a hospice as he battles terminal cancer.

The 49-year-old TV star’s lung cancer has spread to his brain and he recently travelled to Turkey for several treatments.

Chemotherapy, heat therapy and infusions were amongst the treatments he had there and they shrank a number of his tumours but he now has liver damage.

Irwin takes himself away from his family and his home when he’s experiencing chronic pain, he told HELLO! Magazine, the Mirror reports.

Irwin’s three young children aren’t aware of their father’s terminal diagnosis and he leaves the house when he’s in pain whenever possible as he says he’s “not good to be around”.

He told HELLO! Magazine: “I remove myself on a number of occasions because I'm not good to be around when I'm in pain.”

Irwin added: “I'm like a bear with a sore head and I don't want them to be around that.”

Jonnie Irwin has suffered a ‘cruel blow’ following cancer treatment in Turkey

When he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2020, Irwin was given six months to live and now he has suffered a “cruel blow” after he was left with irreparable liver damage.

He told HELLO! magazine: “It's blocked in a place they can't operate on, so there's no point fighting the cancer elsewhere if the liver's not working. It's a cruel blow.”

Speaking about his death, he said: “It can happen at any time. I'm here to stop it for as long as possible.”

Jonnie and his family, wife Jessica Holmes and their children, Rex, four, and two-year-old twins Rafa and Cormac, moved from Hertfordshire to Newcastle 18 months ago to be nearer her family.

The A Place in the Sun host admits he would've preferred to have stayed in southern England but he didn't want Jessica to be alone when he dies.

He added: “I didn't want to move here - I liked my life down south and would have loved to have spent my last days there.

“But I wouldn't want Jess to be on her own, so I took the bullet. And as soon as I saw it, I thought, 'This is the house for our family forever.'”

Jonnie is also proud that they are “mortgage-free” in the family home thanks to him.

He added: “We're mortgage-free, which is all down to me, and I'm proud of that. And I can make it cool.

“We just need to get enough money to finish the work I've started and leave the boys something.”