Ronnie Wood’s ex-wife insists he will "bounce back" after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
The Rolling Stones rocker has revealed he was told he had lung cancer in May and underwent keyhole surgery, and now Jo Wood – who he married in 1985 and split from in 2009 – has confirmed he is "completely fine" and will be ready for his band’s 13-date European tour, which begins next month.
She told The Sun newspaper: "Ronnie will bounce back. He’s tough as old boots and completely fine now.
"He’s got to be back on it as he’s going on tour."
Despite their marriage ending after Ronnie, 70, had an affair with cocktail waitress Ekaterina Ivanova, Jo insists she isn’t "bitter" and the pair have moved on and managed to stay friends.
She said: "If you let things fester you you become bitter.
"You can’t enjoy life. It’s better to be forgiving and happy. Ronnie is my friend."
Ronnie revealed in an interview published on Sunday (06.08.17) that he feared he would die at one point earlier this year.
He told Event magazine: "I’ve had a fight with a touch of lung cancer. There was a week when everything hung in the balance and it could have been curtains, time to say goodbye.
"[Dr Dawood] came back with the news that I had this supernova burning away on my left lung. And to be totally honest, I wasn’t surprised.
"I knew I hadn’t had a chest X-ray since I went into Cottonwood [a rehab clinic in Tucson, Arizona] in 2002.
"He asked me what I wanted to do and I said: ‘Just get it out of me.’"
Ronnie explained that he and his spouse Sally, 39, spent one week waiting to hear if the cancer had spread to other parts of his body and the ‘Brown Sugar’ hitmaker – who gave up smoking before his and his wife’s 15-month-old twin daughters Gracie and Alice were born – was relieved to learn it hadn’t and he was able to undergo an operation to remove the tumour.
Ronnie Wood will ‘bounce back’
