Ricky Gervais’ wife, best-selling author Jane Fallon reveals cancer diagnosis

Best-selling author Jane Fallon, the longtime partner of comedian Ricky Gervais, has revealed she is undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Fallon broke the news on social media, writing she felt compelled to go public given people had noticed she had been quiet lately.

She admitted the diagnosis had been “a lot” but her outlook was promising.

“About a month ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer - very early stage thankfully & the prognosis is excellent,” she wrote alongside a photo of herself, headlined “bit of news. . .(no one panic)“.

“I had a routine mammogram a week before Christmas. I had no symptoms but the brilliant radiographer spotted something iffy & sent me for further tests & eventually a biopsy.

“Since then, I’ve had more mammograms, more biopsies and an MRI so they can pinpoint the problem area precisely. It’s been a lot, I’m not going to lie. But, my surgery is scheduled for the week after next and I just want to get it over with now.

“I’m getting incredible care and all will be fine but I’m not engaging with much beyond audiobooks & jigsaws tbh.”

She also shared a picture of a teddy bear wearing a blue stethoscope and an image of her cat in a purple nurse’s uniform.

“Dr Eric on duty. Nurse Pickle, wondering when lunch is,” she joked.

The diagnosis is an eerie twist, given Gervais wrote, directed and played the lead in the moving TV series Afterlife, about a local newspaper reporter who falls into a deep depression after his wife dies of breast cancer.

The series premiered on Netflix in 2019, with the third and final season concluding in 2022.

Gervais and Fallon have been together since 1982 after meeting at University College London.

They have never married, with Fallon explaining in an interview with the Daily Mail in 2018 that “We’re not married because neither of (us) are fussed. I think if one of us really cared, then we would probably do it but it’s not really been anything that either of us have ever really needed.”

For his part, Gervais has previously said the couple were “married for all intents and purposes” and their “fake marriage” had lasted longer than a “real” one.

“But there’s no point in us having an actual ceremony before the eyes of God because there is no God,” he told The Times.

Gervais, who often speaks about Fallon during his interviews, has so far not commented publicly on Fallon’s diagnosis.