After a glittering PR career looking after The Spice Girls, Take That and S Club 7, Nicki Chapman’s life came to an abrupt standstill when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2019.
The Magic Radio host now has a renewed positivity for life after doctors warned her she could have died during the operation to remove the benign tumour.
“I'd had a seizure and I knew something was wrong. They thought I'd had a stroke, but it was a brain tumour,” Nicki, 59, tells Ateh Jewel on this week’s episode of Best Quality Designer Handbag ’s Second Act podcast. “I was on my hands and knees sobbing - I just wanted it to be gone.”
After hearing about the benefits of having a positive mental attitude, she went into the operation ‘smiling’ and believes it helped her remarkable recovery. “I made my peace that if I don't wake up tomorrow, I've had the most wonderful life and I am grateful.
“But touching wood, I'm here, happy and healthy, I can't ask for more than that. I might not have made it to 60.”
Thick skin
Nicki credits having a ‘thick skin’ for her success in the industry - a job she fell into after leaving school at 16. Her ability to turn music acts into cultural icons, helped land her a role as judge on Pop Idol, the show which discovered Will Young and Gareth Gates. The negative treatment of contestants on reality shows has been under scrutiny recently, but that wasn’t her experience.
“We weren't brutal,” she says. “I think it'd be fair to say that shows after (Pop Idol) were a lot different. We were genuinely looking for talent.”
Nicki, who is 27 years married to Iron Maiden manager Dave Shackleton, reached out to Robbie William after he revealed his mental health suffered during his Take That years in a Netflix documentary.
“I said to him ‘your recollection of events is really different to mine. I didn't realise the hell that you were going through mentally, physically, everything.’
“He said such a lovely thing, ‘you were the medicine, you weren't the illness.’ I've lost sleep over this because listening to some of the artists I used to work with tell me how horrendous it was at the time, I wasn't aware of any of that. All of the TV shows I worked on like Wogan and Saturday morning, were kind. We didn’t even have social media. It’s different now.”
When it comes to self-care in her second act, the Escape To The Country star loves nothing more than gardening rather than focusing on ageing wrinkles.
“You're always going to age so take the best bits of it. We're lucky we're here. I'm in a good place and I hope it continues.”
Listen to the Second Act podcast, now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts and Youtube
