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Anita Dobson drops major health update about husband Brian May – following The Queen icon’s dreadful stroke

Anita Dobson drops major health update about husband Brian May – following The Queen icon’s dreadful stroke

Anita Dobson has dropped a major health update about her famous husband Brian May suffered a stroke in September and was left unable to use his arm.

The EastEnders alum, 75, and the legendary guitarist, 77, have been happily married since 2000. 

And now the actress has reᴀssured fans saying Brian is currently ‘stable’, while also revealing he felt well enough to take over a trip to Lapland over the Christmas festivities.

‘The start of the year has been up and down. We both had the flu but we took the kids to Lapland. 15 of them,’ Anita told The Sun.

‘Brian is stable now. Brian has never been happier since we moved.

‘For me it’s been a curveball as I’m a London girl born and bred so going to the countryside to a house that needs a lot of work was a bit of a shock,’ she added.

Anita Dobson has dropped a major health update about her famous husband Brian May suffered a stroke in September and was left unable to use his arm (pictured this week)

Anita Dobson has dropped a major health update about her famous husband Brian May suffered a stroke in September and was left unable to use his arm (pictured this week)

The has reᴀssured fans saying Brian (pictured) is currently 'stable', while also revealing he felt well enough to take over a trip to Lapland over the Christmas festivities, The Sun reports (pictured in August 2023 on This Morning)

The has reᴀssured fans saying Brian (pictured) is currently ‘stable’, while also revealing he felt well enough to take over a trip to Lapland over the Christmas festivities, The Sun reports (pictured in August 2023 on This Morning)

‘To see what it has done to Brian…he loves it. He loves the birds and the animals. He feeds all the birds and the badgers, foxes and pheasants.’

Spilling the beans on the couple’s upcoming plans as Brian continues to recover – Anita added they are keen to see some pals up in Switzerland while she also has another series of Doctor Who coming out.

Despite the exciting plans, the beloved actress added for the meantime they are ‘just chilling’ and doesn’t mind spending more time at home.

‘It makes you realise that at any minute it could be you,’ she reflected wisely, explaining they are taking it ‘each day as it comes’.

The Queen legend Brian previously revealed he had been rushed to hospital following the medical emergency in a video shared to his personal website.

But later on in December of last year, Anita once again reᴀssured fans that the legendary guitarist’s condition improved and that he was back to playing piano and guitar.

Speaking to The Mirror at the TRIC Christmas Lunch at the time, the EastEnders  actress said: ‘He’s much better now, he’s stabilised now, which is brilliant.

‘I just hope we don’t have any more reoccurrences. He’s got the use of that arm, which was a bit of a challenge, back now.

The EastEnders alum, 75, and the legendary guitarist, 77, have been happily married since 2000 (pictured at Buckingham Palace last year)

The EastEnders alum, 75, and the legendary guitarist, 77, have been happily married since 2000 (pictured at Buckingham Palace last year) 

Speaking on moving to the countryside and Brian's rehab progress, she said: 'He loves it. He loves the birds and the animals. He feeds all the birds and the badgers, foxes and pheasants' (pictured in December 2024)

 Speaking on moving to the countryside and Brian’s rehab progress, she said: ‘He loves it. He loves the birds and the animals. He feeds all the birds and the badgers, foxes and pheasants’ (pictured in December 2024)

‘So, yeah, he’s good to go now. He’s playing the piano quite a lot in the house. He likes a lot of Beethoven. I love it – the piano in the house is really, just very relaxing.’ 

Anita explained that the musician had waited to try playing any instruments, to allow himself time to get better.

She explained: ‘He didn’t actually try until after he’d recovered quite a bit. And then he very slowly started to pick up an acoustic guitar and gradually just exercise the muscles. 

‘And it very quickly came back. He’s just retraining the messages from your brain to that arm, that it’s actually okay to do what it used to do. It was scary.’

She then gushed: ‘And also being a genius for someone like that. His brain’s overloaded, that’s what it is. He’s too clever for his own good.’

Brian announced his stroke in a video, looking animated despite the ‘scary’ episode, and said he can still play guitar following what he called his ‘little health hiccup.

At the time, he asked fans not to ‘clutter up’ his inbox with good wishes, adding that he doesn’t want sympathy. 

The guitarist was recovering from a ripped muscle and trapped nerve as a result of a gardening injury, when he suffered a heart attack in May 2020.

The Queen legend Brian previously revealed he had been rushed to hospital following the medical emergency in a video shared to his personal website

The Queen legend Brian previously revealed he had been rushed to hospital following the medical emergency in a video shared to his personal website 

The music icon announced his stroke in a video, looking animated despite the 'scary' episode, and said he could still play guitar following what he called his 'little health hiccup'

The music icon announced his stroke in a video, looking animated despite the ‘scary’ episode, and said he could still play guitar following what he called his ‘little health hiccup’

In the video, he said: ‘I’m here to bring you some good news – the good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days,’ he said, twiddling his fingers for emphasis.

‘I say this because it was in some doubt because that little health hiccup that I mentioned happened about a week ago and what they called it was a minor stroke.’

The We Will Rock You writer revealed the incident left him temporarily unable to use his left arm and he had a ‘very exciting’ emergency ambulance journey to Frimley Hospital in Surrey, while praising the medical staff for giving him the ‘most fantastic care.’

‘All of a sudden, out of the blue, I didn’t have any control over this arm, so it was a little scary, I have to say,’ he continued.

‘I didn’t want to say anything at the time because I didn’t want anything surrounding, you know. I really don’t want sympathy. Please don’t do that because it’ll clutter up my inbox and I hate that.’

But the animal rights activist, who has campaigned against the culling of badgers to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis, said he is currently ‘grounded’ as a result.

‘The good news is I’m okay. Just doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing. I’m grounded.

‘I’m not allowed to go out – well, I’m not allowed to drive, not allowed to get on a plane, not allowed to raise the heart rate too high… but I’m good.’ 

Anita previously opened up about his stroke during an appearance on Loose Women in October, where she admitted it had been a 'big wake up call for us both' (pictured)

Anita previously opened up about his stroke during an appearance on Loose Women in October, where she admitted it had been a ‘big wake up call for us both’ (pictured)

Anita, who has been engaged four times before marrying Brian, tied the knot in a small register office ceremony in Richmond upon Thames in 2000 (pictured around 1985)

Anita, who has been engaged four times before marrying Brian, tied the knot in a small register office ceremony in Richmond upon Thames in 2000 (pictured around 1985) 

Brian is the guitarist in legendary rock band Queen (pictured: John Deacon, Freddie Mercury, Brian and Roger Taylor Queen in 1970)

Brian is the guitarist in legendary rock band Queen (pictured: John Deacon, Freddie Mercury, Brian and Roger Taylor Queen in 1970)

Read More Brian May’s wife Anita Dobson gives his fans a major health update article image

The rocker – who also has a PhD in astrophysics after abandoning his studies to pursue a career in music – had been seen in public just days before the scare, appearing on ITV’s This Morning on August 23 of last year to promote his BBC documentary on badger tuberculosis. 

Anita, who played Angie Watts on EastEnders, has been at Brian’s side throughout his setbacks.

She previously opened up about his stroke during an appearance on Loose Women in October, where she admitted it had been a ‘big wake up call for us both’.

After the panel asked her how Brian was doing,  Anita let out a sigh and responded: ‘I’m very happy to say, sitting here now, he’s stable and he’s got through it.’

The audience broke into applause at the positive news, before panellist Kay Adams added: ‘It’s a big shock though isn’t it?’

Anita admitted: ‘It was… yeah, a bolt from the blue and a big wake up call for us both because you suddenly think, you charge through life don’t you, wanting to do the things you can do, failing and succeeding sometimes.

‘You just don’t think about that inevitable moment when you’re going to have to slow down and this really did make us both, particularly Brian, and me too, think okay, you’re not getting any younger.’

She continued: ‘At some point you are going to have to face the prospect that you can’t do the things you used to do, so you will have to slow down and start making compromises.

‘It has been quite a shock in a way, not a mᴀssive shock because thank God he’s alright, still iconic.’

Anita met Brian shortly after she began in EastEnders at a film preview, when Brian was still married to his first wife, Chrissie, with whom he had three young children. 

She recalled: ‘He invited me to see Queen play at Wembley, with some friends. Meeting my husband opened a door to a world I’d hitherto only dreamed of. 

‘Here was a man who was a god globally. If he asked you to do a record [Brian produced her 1988 album, Talking Of Love], a Learjet appeared to fly you to Vienna.’ Wasn’t she troubled he was married? ‘I didn’t know,’ she previously told the Daily Mail. 

‘I was heart-wrenched when he told me. We had a terrible row. I was insulted. I thought: ‘How dare you go out with me if you’re married?’ So we just kept a certain distance until we could find a place in life where we could be together. But it was hard, really hard.

‘Everybody gets hurt, and, if there are kids, it’s not good, but if people fall in love there’s nothing you can do about it. Even if you separate, the ache is still there. It stops you moving on because it’s unresolved.

‘We went through hell, but I believe, it was true love. The dust’s settled and I have good relationships with his children and ex-wife.’

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