Dragons’ Den legend, 75, almost killed by dragonfly while holidaying with wife, 44
Duncan Bannatyne had a brush with death on holiday a few weeks ago (Picture: Duncan Bannatyne)
Former Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne has revealed he almost died on a recent holiday in Mexico after a dragonfly bit his hand.
The 75-year-old suffered a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction a few weeks ago while holidaying with his wife Nigora Whitehorn, 44, he has revealed.
Luckily, when his hand swelled up a woman told him to go to the doctor and he was attended to just in time as a ‘dryness’ came up through his oesophagus.
After this Duncan – who owns Bannatyne Health Clubs – said he’s acutely aware of his own mortality, and is ‘obsessed’ with getting his will sorted out.
‘I almost died in Mexico, just a few weeks ago,’ he told The Mirror, explaining: ‘I got this infection in my hand. It was a bite and it’s swelling. There were seven couples and a woman said “you have to get a doctor”.’
Nigora phoned the doctor and he gave Duncan an injection in his hip.
The former Dragons’ Den star was in Mexico (Picture: BBC)
His wife Nigora Whitehorn called a doctor after he was bitten by a dragonfly (Picture: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Birley Clubs)
‘I was lying there, he was talking to my wife and I had this dryness come up through my oesophagus. I was so dry and I couldn’t speak. And my heart started – bump, bump bump bump bump, bump, bump,’ the businessman recalled.
He managed to attract the doctor’s attention, who gave him an injection which got Duncan back to normal, and he was then prescribed some pills from the pharmacist.
Duncan is worth an estimated £400million and has six children.
He and Nigora tied the knot in 2017 in a beach ceremony in Portugal after meeting at a London dental surgery three years before, shortly after Duncan split from his second wife, Joanna McCue.
Recalling the moment they met, Duncan previously said: ‘I spotted her while getting some crowns done. Just as I was building up the courage to speak to her, the buzzer went for my appointment.
‘When I went home I couldn’t stop thinking about her, I felt obsessed! I felt in love with her.’
He starred on Dragons’ Den with James Caan, Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis (Picture: BBC)
Nigora and Duncan married in 2017 (Picture: Nigora Bannatyne)
The millionaire proposed during a holiday to Monaco in 2016, with an enormous pear-shaped diamond ring.
Duncan’s first wife is Gail Brodie, who he married in 1983 and had four children with – Hollie, Abigail, Jennifer and Eve – before their 1994 split.
With Joanna, Duncan had two more children – Emily and Thomas.
Opening up further about his fortune, Duncan said he and Nigora are thinking about funding medical missions with Operation Smile, who operate on about 25 children with cleft.
‘For about £1,000, it changes the whole family’s life, you know, because there are countries where the children are hidden away,’ he explained to the outlet.
In 2014 Duncan announced he was leaving Dragons’ Den after nine years on the show.
‘I have had the time of my life as a Dragon, I have made numerous investments and taken part in a landmark TV programme that has promoted entrepreneurship to an entire generation of Britons,’ he said of his departure.
‘However, after the 2014 recordings I do not plan to make any further investments on the programme so I thought it fair to ask producers to offer my seat to somebody else. There are only so many times I can say “I’m out”.’
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