Fan fears for Ricky Gervais as ‘seriously unwell’ star says he’s suffering the worst illness of his life

RICKY Gervais revealed he’s been suffering from the ‘worst illness of my life’ and thought he was going to die.

The comedian and actor, 61, had intense stomach pain, sickness and diarrhoea over the course of eight horrendous hours.

Writing on Twitter in his distinctive style, he posted: “I’m not well today. In fact I’d say I just lived through the worst 8 hours of illness of my life. Severe abdominal pains, vomiting every time I moved, (but only tiny bits of bile), hot sweats and chills, oh, and I really want to know who planted the 12 gravy bombs up my a**e.”

Fans immediately diagnosed him with a nasty norovirus that has been doing the rounds as they wished him well.

One commented: “Hope you feel better soon, you’re one of a kind and an inspiring figure!”

Another posted: “Ricky! Get better soon! Sending positive vibes for a speedy recovery!”

A third said: “Oh dear, that’s terrible! Sounds like food poisoning Ricky. Drink plenty of water and stay in bed. Probably from the travelling or something. Take care.”

Fortunately, the worst of it was short-lived and Ricky told fans he was on the mend.

He wrote: “Update: I’m out of bed and I’ve had a bath. Feel weak and annoyed that I wasted a whole day, but that is a huge improvement on believing that I was definitely going to die.

“Thanks for all your well wishes.”

Earlier this year Ricky teased he was “going to die soon” when discussing his stand-up show Supernature on The One Show.

Host Alex Jones quizzed the After Life creator over certain jokes about his wealth and wasn’t prepared for Ricky’s response.

She asked: “Throughout this you mention, your wealth quite a lot and that can be really uncomfortable sometimes but the audience absolutely lap it up.

“So how do you manage to pitch that so well?”

Ricky responded: “Because they know what I’m doing. They know I’m taking the micky out of it and I’m going there, it’s an elephant in the room.”

He added: “I go out with bad jeans, drinking out of a can of beer. I think because we are jesters so we have to be down with the audience, laughing at the king and I do that in two ways.

“I let them peep behind the curtain and I tell them all the terrible things that happen to me, the terrible tweets, the terrible press.

“I also do it by telling them they’re better off than me. I’m fat and old and I’m going to die soon.”

Taken aback by his response, Alex shot back: “You’re not,” before Ricky said with a straight face: “I am.”

“You’re not, you’re not,” insisted Alex as Ricky dived in: “I’ve brought it down haven’t I?”

Stunned by the conversation, co-host Jermaine Jenas chimed in: “I didn’t see this coming, this is not a part of the show that I thought was going to happen.”