Home and Away star Johnny Ruffo gives heartbreaking update on cancer battle

Australian actor and singer Johnny Ruffo is battling brain cancer. Photo / Instagram

Australian actor and singer Johnny Ruffo has given a heartbreaking new update in his ongoing battle with terminal brain cancer.

Former Home And Away star Ruffo, 34, told The Daily Telegraph this week that while he hasn’t given up the fight against the brain tumour that first emerged in 2017, he is also thinking about the possibility of death.

And, he said, one thing scares him more than anything: The possibility that all his immediate family, including partner Tahnee Sims, won’t be around him when he dies.

“I’m scared for my brother, my mum, Dad and Tahnee that they won’t be here with me [when I die],” he told the outlet.

“There is no way my family will all be here. The likelihood of that is [slim]. It would be ideal if everyone was there – not for my sake, but theirs.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Ruffo became emotional when speaking about partner Tahnee, who he described as his “guardian angel”.

“She is living with it as much as I am. She is here with me every step of the way. I’m so very grateful to have her by my side, I don’t know what I would do without her,” he said.

Australian actor and singer Johnny Ruffo and girlfriend Tahnee Sims. Photo / Instagram

Ruffo first gave fans a devastating update on his ongoing brain cancer battle in a sit-down interview with The Project’s Carrie Bickmore back in August.

“At some point it will get me, but I’m still fighting, still kicking on,” he said, confirming the diagnosis was now terminal.

“Looking up my diagnosis and my tumour, the average life expectancy was three years. And for me it’s now been five years. I’m already winning. My goal now is to try and help as many people as I can and also live a happy life.”

He told Bickmore he became most emotional when he thought about the toll his health issues were taking on Tahnee.

“You can only imagine how difficult it’s been for her,” he said of his 28-year-old girlfriend.

“What plays in my head a lot is, I hate to say this, how hard it may be for her if something does happen to me. It’s something that I don’t want to think about. It gets me a little bit emotional, because I know at some point something will happen, whether it’s a month from now or 10 years from now or 20 years.”

Ruffo shot to fame as a finalist on the third season of The X Factor in 2011, later starring on Home And Away before he was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2017.