Si King, the surviving half of the Hairy Bikers, has said he doesn't recognise the man he was whilst recovering from his brain haemorrhage in 2014.
Speaking to Davina McCall on her Begin Again podcast, Si, 59, opened up about his near-fatal ruptured brain aneurysm, which happened over a decade ago. He said: "It was 2014. I look back at that man and I don't recognise him... It was full of contrast. I was loved, but I caused quite a lot of pain and anguish. After the brain haemorrhage it took me a good three or four years to think, 'who in God's name was that?'"
Divorce and family impact
At the time, Si was married to Jane, the mother of his three children and his wife of 27 years before they separated in 2016. The celebrity chef revealed that his divorce was, in part, brought on by the pain caused amid his haemorrhage and that it deeply affected his family.
"We got divorced in the end," he told Davina. "And, you know, nobody wants to bring that to your kids or your family... It had a profound effect on my family. And thank goodness, you know, Jane and I are great, great mates and I adore her, I think she's a fabulous woman."
Close call and recovery
Davina asked about what happened when Si had to go to hospital in March 2014 and how close he came to death. Si responded that he had blood in his spinal fluid, so it had gotten "pretty close" to dying.
"And I signed off... that is a salient moment that you just go, right, 'goodbye'" he said. He added that he was worried his sons, Alex, James and Dylan, wouldn't be alright, and wondered about his wife and his friends too.
But Dave Myers, the other Hairy Biker who sadly died in 2024, helped Si through with the power of food. "Two days later, Dave comes up... and he snuffled us in a load of Marks and Spencers pork pies and some cheesy Wotsits."
Cause and childhood memories
When asked what caused the medical emergency, Si said: "The haemorrhage was brought on by high blood pressure and stress... It was pretty clear about two years after the aneurysm that I had a breakdown, really... And when I fell, my knees properly hit the floor."
Part of Si's fears for his sons came from remembering how he had to say goodbye to his own dad. Elsewhere in the podcast episode, Si shared that he was eight when he was taken to hospital to say goodbye to his father after a failed kidney transplant in 1975, and that his sister had to warn him before he went into the room.
"We were all lining up to say goodbye because he hadn't made it, because the anti-rejection drugs weren't as sophisticated as they are now," he explained. "And I remember my sister saying, look, I want you to be very brave when you go in, because you're going to have to say goodbye to dad. [I was] saying, 'Well, where's he going? He's in bed, you know.'"
His dad's death also helped Si find his love of food, as he and his mum "grieved around the stove". Si said: "I'd cook with Mum. But the only problem was, for each year, I was the same in stone. So at eight I was eight stone, at nine I was nine stone, at ten…And I was thinking, this is getting bloody ridiculous, you know, I mean, I'm just about to go to big school and that's not a great place to be moving up into that place."
More seriously, he added: "I think I took a major amount of responsibility on…I know that has coloured and formed my character and application to the world I live in and my family and community, because I'm a terrible one for fixing stuff. I want to fix stuff. I don't want anybody I know and love to be in distress or to be worried about anything... And I'm really hard on myself as well."
