A look at Anne Diamond's marriage and family ahead of her TV return to GB News after double mastectomy

GB News viewers may have been wondering where weekend breakfast show presenter Anne Diamond had gone as the veteran journalist stepped away from the channel for six months.

Diamond last presented GB News on 1 January after being sent an email detailing that she would be receiving an OBE as part of the 2023 New Year’s Honours for her work in campaigning for research on cot deaths following the loss of one of her own children, Sebastian.

Sadly, the news about Diamond’s honour was not the only information broken to the 68-year-old at the start of the year as she was diagnosed with breast cancer leading to her prompt departure from GB News.

Anne told GB News colleague Dan Wootton: “I haven’t been on a world cruise which is what I know social media has been saying,” she added. “It’s been a fight against breast cancer. It’s been a long journey. Five months later I’m not at the end but I’m through it enough to come back to work.”

When is Anne Diamond returning to screens?

Anne originally joined the GB News team including Eamonn Holmes, Stephen Dixon and Dan Wootton last year and this weekend is set to return to screens after undergoing cancer treatment.

The former Loose Women and Good Morning Britain host explained her treatment for the first time on Dan Wootton's Tonight, saying she not only underwent a full mastectomy that lasted nine hours in surgery, a lumpectomy but also radiotherapy.

Anne added: “I don’t have any advice for people because I’m still going through it. I'm well enough to return to work but I had the full mastectomy. This is the first time I’ve talked about it so it’s quite difficult. 

“I am not pretending for a minute I am extraordinary because I am fully aware that one in seven women in this country are going through what I’ve just gone through and I don’t have any advice to give, I just have empathy.”

As Anne spoke about the ‘difficult’ journey and diagnosis on television, it is important to note that this is not the first time the TV presenter has shone a light on heart breaking situations live on air while raising awareness.

A couple of years ago, Anne appeared on Loose Women to talk about the death of her third son Sebastian who passed away at four and a half months old in 1991 from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The mum of four expressed how ‘wonderful’ it was to talk about him to keep his memory ‘real’ before explaining her efforts with the Department of Health and the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, now known as the Lullaby Trust, to launch the Back to Sleep campaign; for which she received an OBE for.

Does Anne Diamond have any other children?

When discussing the loss of her son Sebastian she told the Loose Women panel, “all you can do is try and live every day. I still dread to think how I would have reacted had he been my first, because I'm sure I'd have seen no point in going on. But thank God I had two other children."

Anne is a mother to four other children called Oliver, Conor, Jake and James Hollingsworth - all of whom she welcomed with former husband Mike Hollingsworth.

How long was Anne Diamond married?

Worcestershire-born Anne was married to showbusiness agent Mike Hollingsworth for a decade between 1989 and 1999 after they had an affair in the mid 1980s when Mike was still married to his first wife.

While the pair welcomed five sons together and lived in a £1.5 million 14 bedroom mansion in Cuddesdon, their marriage deteriorated after Mike’s continued alleged infidelity with one affair in particular coming to light in court in 1999.

The TV executive previously blamed one Harriet Scott, a DJ for Virgin Radio at the time, for his ultimate divorce after he was taken to Reading Magistrates Court when he failed to provide a sample for a breath test.

The court heard that Hollingsworth drove to a police station after a party where Harriet allegedly started a fight because he was ‘paying too much attention to other women’.