Footy reporter Paul Kent has opened up on how he found out he was suffering from throat cancer, adding that he had found it ‘tough’ to tell his partner and daughter about his diagnosis.
On Tuesday, Kent lifted the lid on the severity of his illness while speaking on his Kenty Prime Time podcast. He stated that doctors had given him a positive prognosis, but he did not expect to be back presenting the rugby league talk show until round three of the 2026 NRL season.
‘[I have a] four out of five survival rate,’ Kent said, when asked by Warren Livingstone on the Kenty Prime Time podcast about his survival chances.
The 56-year-old last week revealed that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer, and has already begun treatment at the Chris O’Brien Cancer Treatment Centre in Sydney.
In an open and honest interview, Kent was asked whether the diagnosis scared him.
‘Not really,’ Kent replied. ‘I’m actually pretty good about it. I don’t want to sound arrogant about it but I just think I’ll be OK.
‘Like I really think that I’m not going to be that one out of five that doesn’t get it. I don’t for a minute think that’s going to be me. I’ve just got to get through it, do it my way and listen to the doctors and do all that. I’m very confident that I’ll get through it and I’m in reasonable shape for a bloke my age.’
Kent, who played grade footy with Parramatta Eels and also turned out for the North Sydney Bears when he was younger, travelled to the UK for last year’s rugby league Ashes, when he began to feel unusually tired.
He initially thought it was jet lag, but his fatigue continued when he landed back in Australia following the tour. One evening, Kent was sitting at home and noticed that he had a lump on his neck.
After consulting his doctor, Kent went for a biopsy, the results of which showed that he had cancer.
During the podcast, Kent was seen touching his neck, stating: ‘It’s travelled to [my neck]. It was in the back of my throat, started out there.
‘Look, the prognosis is pretty good. It’s just going to be a tough couple of months.
‘This is not something that I’ve particularly wanted to talk about and this whole podcast world is very new to me, particularly as a bloke my age and all the rest of it.’
Paul Kent (pictured) has lifted the lid on how he found out he had cancer during his Kenty Prime Time podcast
He added that he has ‘never’ smoked, before stating that it had been ‘tough’ telling his partner, Sam, and daughter that he had the illness.
‘It’s tough, it’s tough telling everyone mate,’ he said.
The rugby league personality then opened up on the amazing support he has received, lauding the rugby league community for how much they have stood by him.
‘I’ve confided in a few people and one of those was Ben Ikin,’ he said. ‘We did NRL360 for 10 years together. We knew of each other before that and we became very good friends over that period. We had a lot of things we shared with each other during that time. He rang me up, saying: “Look, I’m coming down for the weekend. Am I sweet to stay at your place?” I said: “Yes”.
‘I asked him: “What do you want to do?” because Ben and I are just very different people,’ he added laughing.
‘But anyway, he said: “Let’s just go and have lunch”. We invited some friends along; it wasn’t like we sat down with a guest list. It was a bit ad-hoc of who could make it, whatever. Ikin was there, Billy Moore flew down in the morning, had lunch and then flew home, which just shows you what a great fella, Billy Moore is.’
Paul Crawley, Dave David Trodden, James Hooper, Yvonne Sampson, John Elias were all understood to have attended.
‘It was just a catch-up with mates,’ Kent added before, saying: ‘Rugby league people are good. They rally around when one of their own is in a bit of trouble.’
Kent confirmed that he was battling throat cancer last week, before explaining on Tuesday’s episode of his podcast that his treatment will likely see him miss the start of the NRL season
His treatment is due to continue over the next three months, with Kent hopeful that he could be back to present his podcast by round three of the NRL season, which commences on March 19.
During the podcast, Kent also shared a picture of himself undergoing radiotherapy treatment.
Due to the precise nature of the procedure, Kent will have to wear a mask that is pinned to a table and restricts him from moving.
‘Because it’s in a confined area in my neck, there’s a lot of stuff going on around in your neck, but when they shoot the radiation into it, you’re not allowed to move around, in case you start to hit the wrong spots,’ he said.
‘You put this mask on which basically just locks you down for the 15 minutes. It’s not painful and you can’t even put your tongue through your teeth – that’s how tight it is.’
The NRL reporter revealed that he is expecting to experience blisters in his throat as a side effect of the treatment, adding that he will likely be unable to eat.
‘I will be for a while. Some people can go the whole way and still eat. But I’ve got to go into hospital and get a feeding tube put in because basically most people can’t [eat], you get to a stage where you’ve got blisters inside your neck that you can’t get food in there any more.’
Kent was sacked by News Corp and Fox Sports in 2024 after he was involved in a wild street brawl in Sydney.
The former NRL 360 co-host and News Corp journalist was diagnosed after returning home from the rugby league Ashes tour in England, leading into Christmas
He has since turned to podcasting, with his shows Kenty Prime Time and Kenty Blitz having since taken off massively.
However, he revealed that he wanted to make an announcement on the podcast today to avoid people speculating about his absence during his treatment.
Kent said: ‘These days people tell you everything about themselves. I’m from a different generation. But I have to talk about it from the point of view that my treatment is going to go into football season. The worst part of my season will be at the end of it, which will be right on when footy is starting.
‘I tried to get it all started about a month or so ago and I was hoping I’d be able to get through it all and recover and be back before footy started and that’s not going to happen now, we can’t do that. It’s got to go into the footy season and the thing is I don’t know whether I’ll be able to talk or not at the end of it.
‘I’m going to have radiation on my neck, five days a week. It’s going to cause blisters and skin feeling and all sorts of stuff that you don’t want to be on camera sharing. It also means that come round one, I might not be able to do the podcast.
‘That will begin the questions: “What’s happened to him? Where is he?” I suppose people would be speculating. I got a rush of messages last week because there was a stack of journos at the cricket. Obviously, someone there had spoken about it, because I hadn’t told many people, and a load of journos were texting me saying: “Mate, hope you’re OK? Just heard you’re not well.”
‘So this is essentially to let people know that it’s right, it’s true, but I might not be there at the start of the footy season.
‘I’ll be back as soon as I’m healthy. I’m not looking for anything from anyone. I’m just doing this as a disclosure thing as to why I might not be here from round one. Because we don’t live in a world where you can keep these sorts of things private anymore.’
