Brian May health update as wife Anita Dobson shares 77-year-old Queen star’s ‘up and down’ start to year
Brian May’s wife Anita Dobson has shared a major update about his health following the Queen star’s stroke last year.
The 77-year-old experienced a sudden and frightening health scare in September when he lost control of his left arm “out of the blue.”
The Queen guitarist was rushed to Frimley Hospital in Surrey by ambulance, complete with “blue lights flashing, the lot – very exciting,” as he later described it.
Following his admission to hospital, doctors diagnosed May as having suffered what he termed a “minor” stroke.
Speaking recently, his actress wife Dobson, 75, detailed how they Christmas went as she gave an update on her husband’s health.
She explained the musician’s health is now “stable” and that he has “never been happier,” despite 2025 being “up and down” so far.
“The start of the year has been up and down. We both had the flu but we took the kids to Lapland. 15 of them,” she commented.
She continued: “Brian is stable now. Brian has never been happier since we moved.
“For me it’s been a curveball as I’m a London girl born and bred so going to the countryside to a house that needs a lot of work was a bit of a shock.
“It makes you realise that at any minute it could be you. You don’t have to necessarily be old, it could be anyone,” The Sun reports.
“You think you are fit, you see these people who run marathons and then at a young age they are gone,” she continued.
The former EastEnders star went on to urge everyone to “live every day as if it was your last”.
The incident left the musician temporarily unable to control one of his arms, a particularly concerning development for the legendary guitarist.
“It was scary,” Dobson recalled last year at the TRIC Christmas Lunch. “And also being a genius for someone like that. His brain’s overloaded, that’s what it is. He’s too clever for his own good.”
A week after what May described as a “health hiccup,” he was able to confirm that he could play guitar again.
Dobson revealed that May took a careful approach to his recovery, allowing substantial time before attempting to play music again.
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“He didn’t actually try until after he’d recovered quite a bit,” she explained at the TRIC event.
The process began with gentle exercises using an acoustic guitar to rebuild his strength.
“And then he very slowly started to pick up an acoustic guitar and gradually just exercise the muscles. And it very quickly came back,” Dobson shared.