Vanessa Feltz taken for emergency surgery after experiencing ‘worse pain than childbirth’

Vanessa Feltz has revealed she was taken to hospital for emergency surgery after experiencing unbearable pain.

The broadcaster, 62, shared a video from her hospital bed where she explained she had been “doubled over in agony” while playing with her grandchildren on Sunday, 15 September.

Feltz said the cause of the “worse pain than childbirth” had been a “big kidney stone” that was discovered after a scan. A decision was quickly made to remove the kidney stone, which doctors said was 5mm long.

In the clip shared to her Instagram account, the LBC radio host said: “Good morning from hospital, bit of a surprise.”

She explained: “There was nothing wrong with me at all and then suddenly I got this pain and it was just absolutely extraordinary. I’ve never had anything like it and I’ve given birth to two children naturally and never had any pain like that in my life.”

The presenter added: “I was meant to be presenting a show on LBC from 6-9 and I’m normally quite a trooper at this stuff. I could be ill and take paracetamol and just rock on but there was no way I could so I just couldn’t.”

Feltz, who shares her daughters Allegra and Saskia with her ex-husband Michael Kurer, continued: “I was in agony. I couldn’t sit down. I couldn’t lie down. I didn’t know what to do, it was absolutely astounding.”

The star continued: “Sorry I look so rough, I haven’t got any make-up or anything like that, I didn’t have a chance to gather any up.

“Apparently they had to nuke it with a laser. They had to blast the stone as it was so big that they couldn’t have got it out any other way or something like that. I don’t really like to picture it to tell you the truth.

“Anyway, all my love to you and hope that you’re having a good Monday and that mine is certainly better than Sunday.”

Alongside her video post, Feltz wrote: “Very grateful thanks to my daughters, nurses, porters, anaesthetist and wonderful surgeon. Thank you so much.”

It comes shortly after the presenter’s comments about coeliac disease on This Morning became one of the top five most complained-about television moments in 2023 after her “ignorant” comments received more than 2,000 viewer complaints.

Feltz said it was “completely unreasonable” for a caller’s mother-in-law to stop them from bringing their own food to a gluten-free Christmas dinner during an episode of the ITV show.

In response to the caller being told not to bring anything to the dinner party, Feltz said: “So she’s treating coeliac disease as if it’s a potentially fatal peanut allergy and they can’t have anything with gluten in the house, which is completely unreasonable.”