Details Emerge Of David Bowie's Health Struggles Leading To His Death

Details have emerged surrounding the untimely death of rock icon David Bowie earlier this week, with reports suggesting that the UK-born star suffered from liver cancer and allegedly had six heart attacks in recent years. 

The director of his broadway musical Lazarus has claimed that the singer told him over a year ago that he was suffering from liver cancer. 

Speaking to Dutch broadcaster Nos.nl Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove said, "He told me more than one year and three months ago that he had liver cancer, just after he had been told this himself."

"He said that because he knew that he may not always be able to be around."

Furthermore, in an interview with nrc.nl van Hove also claimed that Bowie told very few people about his illness. 

"The cast didn't know all that time, and I suspect that the musicians with whom he recorded Blackstar didn't know either," he said. 

"He made every effort to complete those two projects on time, not to let his illness win."

"He was ill, but he wanted to live! For his wife and daughter, and for music. That became obvious to me time and time again during our collaboration. He wanted this show to go ahead, and he wanted this last album, Blackstar, to be released. He continued to make music until the very last moment. I have an unbelievable amount of admiration for how he really scraped together his strengths in order to still achieve this."

Meanwhile, biographer Wendy Leigh who published the book Bowie, The Biography in 2014 has alleged to BBC (via Independent) that Bowie suffered from other health issues as well as cancer. 

"Physically, he didn’t just battle cancer, if that’s not enough, he had six heart attacks in recent years," Leigh said. 

"I got this from somebody very close to him."

The claims come a day after the late artist's long-term producer Tony Visconti wrote in a Facebook post that Bowie knew his newly-released album Blackstar would be his final record and that he intended it to be a "parting gift" for fans.

Click here to see how the world has mourned the death of David Bowie.