Katherine Ryan, 41, steps out with husband Bobby Kootstra in first sighting since she learnt shock ‘real biological age’ amid skin cancer battle

Katherine Ryan has been seen for the first time since learning her shock biological age. 

The comedian, 41, recently revealed she was left thinking she was going to die after being told she has medical age of 77 during an appearance on What’s My Age Again? podcast.

Katherine – who revealed in March that she’s battling melanoma for the second time – enjoyed an outing with her husband Bobby Kootstra in north London on Friday amid her barrage of worrying health news.

She was casually clad for the outing in a floral dress that she paired with a pink and khaki oversized cardigan. 

Bobby also kept things low-key in a white jumper and backwards baseball cap. 

Katherine recently spoke with  Dr Chris Wincup and resident podcast ageing expert Dr Nicola Conlan, Katherine to find out her glycolic age.

Glycolic age refers to a process that sees guests take a blood test to determine their biological age, and compare it with their chronological one.

During the chat, Katherine, who has also been diagnosed with cancer twice, revealed that before her lupus diagnosis she was misdiagnosed with a range of conditions including leprosy. 

She was told she had ringworm on her face when in reality she had Discoid Lupus Erythematosus (DLE). 

Discoid Lupus Erythematosus is a form of lupus which affects the skin and presents as sores, usually on the person’s face or scalp.   

Katherine told the podcast: ‘I was originally diagnosed with ringworm on my face, but it was the discoid rash. And leprosy, I thought, leprosy.

‘Well, I wasn’t diagnosed with leprosy. It was just, like, suggested to me by a guy on a bench.

‘Nicola, am I gonna die? Is there anything positive from the data that you collected?’

To which Dr. Nicola Conlon replied: ‘The positive is, as I always say, that it’s reversible and knowing something about it means you can do something, something about it.

Katherine replied: ‘It’s not reversible. I have a chronic illness. I’m not going to be doing any yoga with you and your little northern friends. 

‘I appreciate you always try to give some actionable advice, but I just, I lean into being 77. 

‘I thought it was going to be older, to be honest with you, with the few weeks and months that I’d had leading up to the test.

‘Yeah. Okay, so I’ve been doing well. I did well in my questionnaire. 

‘We’ve had crackheads in here who are 20. Great. Well, I’m going to ask my closing questions to myself now. 

‘Thank you both so much for being here, I do have some medical mistrust.

Which prompted Chris Wincup to say: ‘That’s why I’m on this side. Right.’

Katherine replied: No, but I really like you, Dr. Chris. I appreciate that you’ve dedicated your life to helping people like me and, you know, the trauma that we’ve come from, being told it’s all in our head. 

‘Totally yada yada. We don’t know why we put you on anti-malarial medicine. You might go blind. We don’t know.’

Katherine also revealed she doesn’t exercise and shared the reason why she steers clear of going to the gym. 

‘I think being in any close proximity to the Lycra dads, you know, on a Sunday, that would make me feel sad and stupid,’ she shared.

‘It would be an inflammatory response straight away. You know what I mean? I don’t want to be part of that gang.’ 

In March, Katherine revealed that she was battling skin cancer. 

She made the revelation in her podcast, Telling Everybody Everything, explaining she paid to have mole removed from her arm and learned it was cancerous. 

She explained she required more surgery to ensure the entire mass has been removed. 

The mother-of-three explained: ‘The only reason that they agreed to remove it was because I went to a fancy private place in South Kensington and I paid them a grand… I don’t know if on the NHS they ever would have removed this mole.’

While the Canadian comic did not trust the NHS would have removed the mole, she revealed she faced different problems while seeing private doctors. 

She explained that she had paid £300 for a seven-minute consultation with a doctor, who wrongly informed her the mole wasn’t cancerous.

Yet she was inspired to keep pushing with her concerns after following Teddi Mellencamp‘s journey. 

The Real Housewives star, 43, has been battling skin cancer since 2022 and this year revealed doctors had found three tumours in her brain.

Katherine recalled: ‘He gave me the news that I wanted! I think it’s really easy to take a diagnosis of you’re healthy and walk away, you go ”great I’m healthy” and you don’t think about it again because that is the easiest news. 

‘But the mole kept changing – I know a lot about melanoma, I had a melanoma as a very young woman, stage two on my leg – and I’ve spoken about that before. 

‘Even that didn’t look traditionally like melanoma to me, fair enough it had some discolouration and asymmetry and a bit of black and red. 

‘It was a flat mole, not that bad and not that big, but it was stage two melanoma so that was bad. 

‘I had to have full general anesthetic and surgery to have a golf-ball size of my leg because – if you know about melanoma, you know it’s a deadly form of skin cancer and it spreads quickly.’

Discussing her current cancer battle, she went on: ‘I just felt like this mole wasn’t right. It’s on my arm, I showed pictures of it on social media, this is like the hole from having it removed. 

‘I went in and I wanted the doctor to remove a bigger piece of it and stitch it up in a straight line. 

‘But even when he looked at it, he was like “not melanoma, totally fine, I will do the shave and send it away for histology and if there’s any borders that we missed, then we will do the deeper cut”.’

Yet the test confirmed that she needed the deeper cut, and she continued:  ‘It just feels crazy to me, like what could have happened if I hadn’t been my own advocate – and I will continue to be my own advocate.

‘If I hadn’t pushed, if I had taken that good answer the first time and walked away. Then I would have had melanoma just growing and spreading in my arm and I would say “oh no the doctor says it’s fine, it’s fine” and god knows how far that would have gone.’ 

Katherine shared her shock at the diagnosis, revealing how she has been careful to protect her skin.

Explaining how she broke the news to husband Bobby Kootstra, she shared: ‘I was upset when I called [Bobby] because I feel very lucky but I also feel like what the f**k? 

‘It’s not ideal to have melanoma twice in your life and I obviously have a genetic predisposition, I am someone with type one, Celtic skin, I have over 100 moles. 

‘I don’t go in the sun, I wear SPF all the time, I cover my body, I cover my arms, I cover my face, but here’s my second go with melanoma that I know of! I’m thinking f**k what other moles do I need to get checked?’

She added in a TikTok video: ‘This time luckily I caught it early, I don’t think it has spread.’ 

It’s the second time Katherine has been diagnosed with the disease, having been diagnosed with Stage 2 cancer in 2004.

She said previously: ‘The cancer wasn’t that serious. It wasn’t into my lymph nodes, I didn’t have to have chemotherapy. 

‘It did recur, but it was easily dealt with. I feel like I was really lucky just to get that lesson, that little smack on the a**e of “Hey, wait a minute. Listen to your body, here.”’ 

She previously joked that moving to the UK had been the ‘best thing’ for her because of the lack of warm weather, she told The Guardian: ‘I just joked that it was free lipo. If you’re prone to skin cancer, then living in the UK is the best thing you can do.’

Katherine was born and raised in Canada but moved to London in her early twenties to pursue her comedy career. 

The comedienne and her childhood sweetheart Bobby have two children together Fenna, two, and Fred, three. 

She also has a 15-year-old daughter Violet from her previous relationship with boyfriend Alex Edelman.

Katherine has also been battling Lupus and previously discussed her struggle with the disease – having first experienced symptoms back in 2007. 

She had just moved to London when she first began to suffer with sore joints, fatigue and rashes. 

In an interview with The Mirror she explained: ‘I had really low white blood cells, but no one seemed particularly alarmed about that. There was a lot of frustration with doctors who didn’t know what was wrong and didn’t investigate. I felt quite fobbed off.’ 

Following various appointments with an array of specialists, she added that she was told she could have ‘ringworm’ whilst another took a guess with ‘leprosy.’ 

Desperately Katherine visited A&E, where a nurse there first suggested that she might have Lupus. 

After almost a year of trying to get a professional diagnosis she was finally told by a dermatologist that she had systemic lupus erythematosus. 

Whilst there is no cure for the long-term condition, it can be treated and controlled with medication to prevent it from getting worse and lessen flare-ups. 

As well as being a stand-up comedian appearing on shows such as QI and Have I Got News For You, Katherine is also well-known for television programmes such as Duchess and Meet the Richardsons.

Fans know her as much for her glamourous looks and outfits as they do for her outspoken nature on everything British.