Martin Kemp predicts he will die within ‘10 years’

Musician opened up to his son Roman on a new podcast

Former Spandau Ballet musician Martin Kemp has predicted that he will die within 10 years.

Kemp, 62, made the admission during a podcast recorded alongside his son, former Capital Breakfast radio presenter and former I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! contestant Roman Kemp.

Back in the 1990s, Kemp was diagnosed with two benign brain tumours, and successfully underwent radiotherapy and surgery to have the growths removed. However, one of the side effects of the experience was epilepsy, which Kemp has lived with ever since.

The two Kemps discussed their mortality during the first episode of the new podcast series FFS! My dad is Martin Kemp.

In the episode, titled “Death, Martin and Roman”, Kemp is asked by his son how much longer he expects to live.

“I’ll be really honest with you, 10 years,” he responds. “I don’t know how long I’ve got left but I will tell you, since I was the age of 34, when I went through all of that brain tumour 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 that I’ve lived, every experience that I’ve had has been a bonus.”

Martin Kemp pictured in December 2023 (Getty Images)

Kemp explained that he had been “practically resigned” to the notion that he was going to die, and had been “happy with [his] lot”.

The bassist continued: “I thought: ‘If I go, do you know what? What a life’ and that was back then. So, every year that I live, every month that I’m alive now is like a bonus.

“I would be happy if I got to 80, that gives me 18 years.”

Kemp played bass guitar in Spandau Ballet from 1979 until the group’s dissolution in 1990, later returning for a decade after the band reunited in 2009.

Kemp has previously spoken about being cast on the soap EastEnders, and the positive role that played in his recovery from the brain tumours.

“My brain still wasn’t working properly from the operation,” he said. “To the point where sometimes if I wanted to walk left, I would walk right, or like I couldn’t think about putting things in order, or anything like that. Learning lines was just way out there.

“When EastEnders was offered to me it was a chance for me to get over it, so it wasn’t just me taking EastEnders on because I thought yeah, it was a good gig – it was me trying to get my life back together.”