He was first diagnosed in 2000, with doctors predicting he had three months to live before he underwent surgery to remove one of his kidneys.
After a successful operation, six years later, he launched the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer to fund research and raise awareness of the disease.
His cancer returned in 2020, and it was revealed that it had also spread to his spine, brain and lungs.
We are sad to announce that James Whale MBE died earlier today aged 74, following a lengthy battle with cancer.
As a broadcasting legend for over 50-years, James will be missed by so many at TALK and the wider News UK family. pic.twitter.com/YvvywXvuK0
— Talk (@TalkTV) August 4, 2025
The broadcaster’s final column was published just hours before he passed away, in which he revealed he’s “happy to go now and feels at peace” after moving into a hospice.
He is survived by his wife Nadine and his two sons James and Peter.
In May, James revealed he was no longer receiving treatment.
Speaking on his Talk TV show with Ash Gould, he said: “I’m at the end of my cancer journey. There is no treatment I can have anymore.
“I can’t tell you how grateful I am to Talk to actually let me on the air and sit next to Ash, which is a real pain in the butt, but I’ve been doing it for 25 years!”
James said his recent ill health had taken its toll on him due to a severe bout of flu which led to an intensive care stay over Christmas.
Despite his health, James managed to joke: “It might actually be helping me, you never know, so I don’t let that cloud my judgment – but on the medication I am on, I’m all over the place.
“I’m hoping to go on for another few weeks, few months but as soon as I can’t do the show anymore, I won’t.”
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On June 7, he told TalkTV viewers that things were getting ‘very, very difficult’ and he had resorted to wearing make-up on the air to appear healthy.
During a conversation with a guest who’d lost her husband to the disease, James said: “Until very recently, everything was quite normal for me, everything was fine, and then you do get to a stage like I am now, with things get to be very very difficult.
“To anybody else who is in the final stages of cancer, you have my sympathy. I know exactly what you’re going through, I do know, I look basically okay, I get told you look alright and I look okay, it’s all make-up.”
