In 2005, Watson began having
headaches, which he described as "like a knife being pressed into the bridge of my nose". He consulted a specialist who told him there was nothing to worry about as he was suffering from
stress and should find ways of relaxing. When his
peripheral vision began to be affected in late 2006, he visited another specialist who also said he was suffering from stress. Watson told him, "The only thing that's stressing me is this pain in my head."
In September 2006, Watson flew to
Los Angeles, California, to record his album
That's Life. On the flight, he told his
producer that he was experiencing terrible pressure inside his skull. When they landed, his producer suggested a game of tennis to clear his head. Watson could not see the ball at all. After a visit to the
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and an
MRI scan, he was advised that he had a developing
pituitary adenoma, a type of
brain tumour, which was the size of two golf balls. According to Watson, "Since an early age I've had an in-built premonition, a vision that I wouldn't make 40. For the previous seven years I'd have a recurring nightmare in which my head exploded. And here I was with a brain tumour on the eve of my 40th birthday; I thought, 'This is it, I was right, I knew it'." Watson recalled that the tumours were "like a figure of eight, one filling the frontal cavity of my skull, the other forced through into the top of my nose." He stayed in Los Angeles for two days and continued recording his album while tests confirmed whether the tumour was
malignant or not – it turned out to be
benign.
Watson then returned to the UK, and had a five-hour emergency operation to remove the eight-centimetre lump at
St George's Hospital in
Tooting, South London, on Monday,
24 September 2006. As the tumour was pressing against his
optic nerve, the surgeon removed the tumour through his nose.
After the operation, Watson could barely walk, and the tumour had affected his
pituitary gland which controls
hormone levels: "My mood swings went from ecstatic to suicidal. I remember one night standing on the balcony, full of dark thoughts and self-pity, thinking 'God, this is f**king terrible, why me?' I went back to bed, couldn't sleep, got up again. I thought I'd had enough. If it hadn't been for the girls [his daughters]..." His energy levels were very low and he did not leave his house for two months: "I couldn't deal with more than one person at a time or with multitasking and I cried easily." Watson was readmitted to hospital in Manchester for tests on
6 October 2006 after complaining of dizziness, headaches and blurred vision.
Upon recovering, Watson returned to the recording studio to finish his album
That's Life. Originally due out in November 2006, it was subsequently released on
5 March 2007. On the advice of his doctors, his latest UK tour, which had been due to start in late October 2006, was also postponed until March 2007 to coincide with the album release. The rescheduled tour met with huge approval throughout the country, with night after night of standing ovations to a visibly-moved Watson.
Whilst in the middle of a studio recording on
24 October 2007 Watson suddenly became incapacitated, with multiple symptoms including a dramatic deterioration of vision. An MRI scan showed he had a regrowth of his tumour with bleeding. He underwent emergency surgery to remove the tumour at the Alexandra Hospital in
Cheadle, Greater Manchester, and was for a while in critical condition in the hospital's Intensive Therapy Unit. On
26 October 2007 a hospital spokesman said that Watson was "recovering well" from his surgery and was in a stable condition, although the recovery process might be "a long haul". He added that Watson's managers had been "overwhelmed by the amount of support and messages from friends and fans".
On
29 October 2007 Watson was taken out of intensive care although remained under constant supervision at the Alexandra Hospital.
