Celebrating the Knights and Dames appointed in this year's King's Birthday Honours list. Video / NZ Herald
Dai Henwood apologises in advance for woozy replies to congratulatory messages.
All going well, tomorrow he will be in surgery.
The comedian with stage-four cancer has today been named an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to the entertainment industry and charitable fundraising.
He’ssuper stoked. But first, “a couple of complications” to deal with.
“It’s nothing major. It’s just I’ve had fluid around my heart and lungs . . . which is frustrating because the new chemo drug I’m on is actually working very well.”
The operation scheduled for tomorrow is “basically draining the fluid with a view to it not coming back ... unfortunately, as anyone with cancer, or associated with cancer would know, it’s never an easy road. Just as you think everything’s going great, there’s a curveball”.
Henwood was heading to hospital when he received a message about the King’s Birthday Honour.
“Oh, the first email, because it’s from quite a strange address with a very strange subject line, I was like, ‘this is either spam or someone’s pulling my chain here’. With everything I’ve been going through, it sort of was the last thing on my mind.
“My head wasn’t exactly there. And then I was ‘oh, hold on, this is serious!’”
Henwood’s mother is Dame Carolyn Henwood, a title she received in 2022, two decades after she became a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as a district and youth court judge and to the arts. His father, Ray Henwood (who died in 2019), was named an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006, for services to film and the theatre.
“So I sort of completed the trifecta,” Henwood says. “I took my kids down to Wellington when Mum was made a dame, and I know how proud I felt. She’s been such an epic, epic support for me throughout my whole life, whether it was getting into comedy or dealing with cancer - so I know she’ll be super proud.”
Henwood’s Honour citation notes more than 25 years of comedic trailblazing. He has amassed seven best male comedian wins at the annual New Zealand Comedy Guild Awards and is a household name for his work on the likes of television’s 7 Days and Dancing with the Stars.
Dai Henwood (centre) with Radio Hauraki's Matt Heath and Jeremy Wells at the Day in Loo, a 12-hour bowel cancer bathroom fundraiser. Photo / Michael Craig
More recently, he has advocated for men’s health and those living with bowel cancer, playing a key role in Radio Hauraki’s “Day in Loo” fundraiser and hosting 2023’s The Comedy Treatment, a television event that made more than $250,000 for the Cancer Society.
“I’m not a huge awards person,” says Henwood. “I’ve always sort of focused more on the actual work. But when I was reflecting on this, it just made me feel extremely proud, because I have worked as a comedian in a space that is very much ‘carve your own path’.
“To make a living as a comedian ... where I can live relatively comfortably with my family, to me, that is a huge achievement. I’ve dedicated over half my life to just travelling around the country and abroad making people laugh and that’s been so important to me.”
Going public with a cancer diagnosis in January 2023 was “confronting” but it, and the fundraising and awareness work he’s since undertaken, has exposed him “to the most amazing kindness, generosity, love and support”, Henwood says.
“Seeing the best side of humanity and being a part of that and then being honoured for doing that - it feels very special and it is quite validating. The honour itself has made me sit back and reflect a bit more on my life.”
“I’ve been doing it pretty tough of late,” he says.
The ONZM was a bit of shining light.
“Often [in life] it’s always about the next thing and for me, unfortunately, it’s often been about the next treatment, getting myself up for chemo, getting myself up for surgery. I’ve been dealing with some reasonably heavy stuff over the last month . . . having the honour spark reflection has actually brought me a lot of happiness.”
Tomorrow’s surgery should, he says, allow a return to a chemotherapy treatment that had been successfully shrinking tumours.
But: “I’ll probably be on various drugs and so forth, so I apologise to anyone who gets some strange messages from me when they send me a congratulations!”
A young, suit-loving Dai Henwood and his father Ray, on a whirlwind stop in Hawaii, en route to visit family in Wales. Photo / Henwood Family
“The first thing I thought is I’m going to have to get some flash clothes for my kids to come along [to the investiture] because neither of them are sort of ball-gown/suit-wearing types yet. So there’ll be an expensive outing somewhere along the way there!”
Henwood, whose book The Life of Dai revealed his own early penchant for snappy dressing, suspects he already owns something suitable for the ceremony.
“I have left many a TV set carrying a suit bag. That’s actually the best thing about being a short person. Everything gets altered for me and they go, ‘oh, you may as well take it’.”
Kim Knight joined the New Zealand in 2016 and is a senior reporter on its lifestyle desk. She recently won the Gordon McLachlan award for best lifestyle reporting at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards.
