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TRIGGER WARNING: This article discusses fertility complications and mental health. Reader discretion is advised.
The Living Room favourite Barry Du Bois has shared an honest and emotional update on his cancer battle.
The 64-year-old previously described his cancer – Plasmacytoma Myeloma, a cancer of the immune system – as “not curable.”
Barry’s cancer is “not curable.”
(Credit: Instagram)After being in remission for seven years, Barry discovered the disease had returned “reasonably aggressively” in 2017.
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In a first person story published in the Gold Coast Bulletin in June 2025 ahead of Men’s Health Week, the TV personality reflected on the moment the doctors revealed time was running out.
“I was sitting in a cold, unfamiliar consult room at St Vincent’s Hospital, my beautiful wife’s warm hand holding mine,” he revealed. “Then someone — a doctor who had known me for only a few hours — looked me in the eye and told me I had three months to live.”
Refusing to accept that statement, Barry told the doctors: “You might not know the kind of will I have to live, but if you do your job, I’ll do the rest.”
While continuing his work as a TV presenter, designer and columnist, Barry has also remained vocal throughout his treatment.
In the years since his diagnosis, Barry has opened about his enduring sense of optimism and why he maintains such a sense of vulnerability.
“During a podcast last week the host thanked me for being so open with my emotions. She said we really don’t know each other that well and to expose my feelings so openly, honestly was very brave to allow that vulnerability.”
“I explained that after being forced into the ring with terribly vicious opponents like cancer, it is not a scary thing for me to allow emotions to surface when sharing a painful story,” he continued.
“I just didn’t want to talk, I closed down.”
(Credit: Instagram)Speaking to New Idea in 2019, he shared further insight into his personal journey. In 2004, Barry lost his mother to breast and bowel cancer, but the difficult times didn’t stop there when his wife, Leonie Tobler, went on to be diagnosed with cervical cancer.
“I lost my mum, my wife got cancer and everything started to unwind,” Barry said.
“I just didn’t want to talk, I closed down.”
Two weeks prior to Leonie’s diagnosis, she miscarried twins after their 12th IVF attempt.
“That was until I heard that ever-familiar scream then crying coming from the bathroom,” he told the Gold Coast Bulletin. “I knew straight away that we had failed again.”
“So I don’t see it as brave and have learnt that expressing your emotions rather than suppressing then helps to self-reflect and gain emotional resilience.”
In October 2017, Barry first shared the devastating news that his cancer had returned – this time it was much more aggressive, but still, he was determined to stay positive, and his fight inspired us all.
“My answer to my diagnosis wasn’t negative, it was all about how can we best prepare ourselves to deal with the battle ahead. There will always be battles in life and it’s always about being ready and best prepared to deal with them,” he wrote.
The star also spoke to Australian Men’s Health in 2019 to share that he works on maintaining and improving his health as much as possible. He focuses on being as proactive as he can with his wellbeing; for himself and his children.
“What I have is not curable. But I’m in a great place. I’m as good as someone can be who has multiple myeloma,” he told the publication.
“What I want is for my children to be able to tell their children one day that their dad was a powerful man.”
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. You can call the SANDS 24/7 bereavement support line on 1300 308 307 or visit the website.
