Melanie Sykes has shared an update on her ongoing health condition in a candid video on Instagram.
The 55-year-old presenter, known for co-hosting Today with Des and Mel alongside Des O’Connor and Going Out with Alan Carr on BBC Radio 2, posted a clip with the caption: “Yo peeps, it’s been a while. I have ignited my YouTube channel again after a long period of learning, meditating and healing (this is ongoing.) Remember I love you always.”
In the video, Melanie speaks to the camera with a scarf wrapped around her neck and a woolly hat on her head. “Hi everyone, how are you doing? So, I’ve not been on for ages!” she begins.
“I am not well, as you know, I’ve been ill all year. I’ve got an autoimmune condition. I’m losing my hair. I keep having crazy inflammation, like, all over everything, and I’m working on healing.”
She continues: “In the last three months, I’ve done a meditation teacher training course. I was too ill to finish it, like, literally the last two days of it, I couldn’t do.
“It’s a meditation teacher training, but I don’t necessarily want to teach, but, you know, I can do but mostly I’ve been living a very, very spiritual existence, and I have been logging it and filming it and writing about it.
“I haven’t published everything because I’ve been busy studying, and it’s been such a wonderful time for me.
“So I’m saying, yo, as always, I’m sending so much love. I kick-started my YouTube video again. I’m in so much pain, honestly, my lips and my eyes are just so bad. I just wanted to say hello and you’ll see I’m two-thirds bald.
“Every time I say I’m bold, I laugh. I don’t know why. Thank God I can laugh. Always laugh. I love you all so much. I care about you all so much.
“I’ve put up an intro, a new intro, for the YouTube videos, and one about fatherhood. I’ve got one that I want to publish, but I can’t get it off the platform I’ve stuck it on.
“Because I, you know, need someone technically minded. I need some IT [explicit]. But it doesn’t matter because I’ve got plenty to say, and I can just re-film loads of things, but I just want to say, good morning. It’s still morning – just.
“I love you, and I want to share my thoughts as always and my spiritual knowledge, and just get you guys to start meditating, because it really is the key to joy. All right. Take it easy. I love you. Tara!”
This update comes four years after Melanie revealed she had been diagnosed with autism. In April 2025, she also shared that she had been dealing with alopecia and heart issues, which she attributed to PTSD and previous experiences within the medical system.
On Instagram, she explained: “I am uploading a new video on YouTube because I wanted to share what I have learned, observed and endured recently.
“Not because of the trend of sharing all diagnoses but to share the experiences I have encountered in the British medical system in the state and private sector for the last few weeks and beyond, and its crashing flaws and how the mainstream media affects me and my life.”
