How Hannah the Traitor 'spied' on her young daughters... from her hospital bed while being treated for cervical cancer during the Covid lockdown

Published: 18:25 EST, 14 November 2026 | Updated: 18:34 EST, 14 November 2026 Celebrity Traitors star Hannah Fry has told of the heartbreak of being separated from her two young daughters while being treated for cervical cancer during the Covid lockdown.The mathematician underwent a hysterectomy at the age of 36 – and today recalls the anguish of lying in her hospital bed, watching her children playing at home via FaceTime, unaware she was looking over them.She decided not to interact with her daughters – now aged about seven and nine – while in isolation because she wanted to spare them from her ordeal. 'I was just too sad and my girls were so small,' she said. 'I didn't want them to see me. It was too much.'In an emotional interview with Lauren Laverne on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, she added: 'I was in this hospital bed on my own.'No one could come and visit me for over a week, with just nothing but the sort of sheer terrifying drop of the end of your existence in front of me. It was horrific.' After the operation, Professor Fry was told her life might still be at risk because the cancer may have spread too far into her lymphatic system – and said she felt like she was suspended in mid-air awaiting the test results. Celebrity Traitors star and mathematician Hannah Fry has spoken of her heartbreak of being separated from her daughters while being treated for cervical cancer during lockdownShe added: 'When you're in that situation, your mind doesn't really have anywhere it can go. You can't think back to happy things that have already happened because it's too sad. 'You can't look forward to things that you are hopeful about because it doesn't feel like it's there. And you can't be there in the moment because it's too painful. You are trapped on a bed and it's awful.'After being given the all-clear, she said she now regarded the diagnosis as a 'gift'.Desert Island Discs is on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds at 10am today.