Nick Knowles has said that there he kept his 10-month struggle with long Covid a secret as he feared that he would be unable to get work if he didn't.
The DIY SOS star, 59, appeared on Lorraine as he admitted that he had needed to covertly take breaks while working after getting out of breath.
Lorraine posed the question of how he was doing after suffering from Covid last year as she asked: "Are you OK now?"
"Yeah, good now," he replied. "I had it really bad right at the start of lockdown. I got Covid pretty bad and me - being impatient - tried to get straight back into exercise directly afterwards.
"There seems to be some suggestion or correlation that actually going too hard at exercise too soon after Covid can actually cause you problems.
"I had what I would describe, and what my doctors would describe, as long Covid for about ten months. Afterwards you just have no energy at all."
Lorraine responded: "You're just absolutely drained."
"Yeah, absolutely knackered the whole time," he agreed. "But I didn't want to tell anyone because I thought I wouldn't get a booking for work! I kept it to myself!"
"What are you like?!" Lorraine exclaimed. "Honestly!"
"So I'm climbing up big seven storey buildings on ladders and I had to stop every two ladders to go, 'I'm taking in the view'," he said.
"You were exhausted," Lorraine hummed.
"But I managed to get through it," he continued. "Amazingly, seven or eight months ago I managed to get better and I started on a fitness camp."
Earlier this month, Nick told the Mirror that he had put on four stone during lockdown.
He said: “I’ve made a living by looking like a bag of spanners on TV. I’m 18 stone, I’m massive.
“I’m always on building sites. During lockdown I put on almost four stone. I’ve taken two stone off now and I’m getting fit again.”
*Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV
