Beloved television host Osher Gunsberg undergoing a secret health battle

As The Bachelor gears up for a return to our screens next year, its host Osher Gunsberg has sparked concern for his health following his worrying appearance while out promoting the show.

Looking noticeably slimmer, the 48-year-old presenter was seen leaving Ten studios in Sydney recently on crutches and what appeared to be a bag with a cord strapped around his body.

While Osher underwent hip surgery in 2020, the walking aids seem to have been recently reintroduced, given the TV star wasn’t seen using them during the filming of The Bachelor shows earlier this year.

His appearance is in stark contrast to when he appeared on the cover of Men’s Health magazine with defined muscles and rippling abs in May last year, and fans have been quick to notice the change.

In a comment to a picture of Osher posing with wife Audrey, stepdaughter Georgia, and son Wolfgang, three, a fan questioned why he was on crutches.

“There are two years worth of podcasts about it,” he replied, hinting that there was much to say about the ailment.

BEARING THE PAIN

Earlier this year, in July, Osher opened up about his “extraordinarily, agonisingly painful” osteoarthritis – a degenerative joint disease – on his podcast Better Than Yesterday, and revealed he had undergone hip replacement surgery because of it in 2020.

Unfortunately, complications from the highly invasive procedure occurred, and the presenter added that the returning pain was so severe, he thought he was going to lose his TV career.

“I thought there was no way in the world I was going to be able to make these two TV shows,” Osher said of the pain he felt as filming of his two shows, The Bachelor and The Masked Singer approached this year.

“I was so overwhelmed and as I catastrophised, the pain got worse.

“I was scared as sh*t thinking I wasn’t going to be able to do my job, that they’d find someone to replace me and that’d be it. TV career over,” he added.

However, after listening to his doctor’s advice, Osher was able to power through, using breathing techniques and hot baths to help him manage his gruelling filming schedule.

“I also try to focus on the sensation and the part that hurts – and that seems to work,” he says.

Osher also added that eventually he’s going to need “surgery to replace the hip replacement”, which he said “is very funny when you think about it”.

OPEN BOOK

The star has long been transparent around his battles with his health, saying in his 2020 memoir, Back, After the Break, he often felt “helpless” while navigating anxiety and depression.

Osher was also diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and post traumatic stress disorder in 2006, adding that he had turned to alcohol as a way to “mask his illness”.

“Eventually alcohol, which had started out as a solution to my problem, became the problem, and I had to give it away,” he said.