Sir Brian May’s wife Anita Dobson confident he will make full recovery after stroke

Brian May of Queen is doing 'really well' after his stroke earlier this month, his wife says. Photo / Getty Images

Sir Brian May’s wife of 24 years, Anita Dobson, says she is “completely confident” he will make a “full recovery” after he suffered a stroke.

The Queen legend was instructed to rest up after a minor stroke saw him rushed to hospital several weeks ago - and although he’s struggling with the slower pace, he knows it’s important to fully recuperate, Dobson says.

Speaking to The Sun’s ‘Bizarre’ column, Dobson, 75, said May is “doing really, really well”.

“It’s hard to keep him resting, but he needs to, otherwise he won’t get well,” she added. “He’s doing great – he’s on the road, he’s doing really, really well. We’re very pleased.

“I’m completely confident he’ll make a full recovery. You have to take things slowly, chill a bit. He’s not that kind of animal!”

May was able to make light of the health scare and joked about his “very exciting” hospital dash, the former EastEnders actress revealed, adding, “It’s good to keep a sense of humour”.

The 77-year-old guitarist previously shared he was unable to “control” his arm after suffering the “little health hiccup”, but reassured fans he could still play his beloved instrument.

In a video update on Instagram, the We Will Rock You hitmaker told his followers: “I hope you’re all well out there. I’m here to bring you first of all some good news. I think good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days, and I say this because it was in some doubt.

“That little health hiccup that I mentioned happened about a week ago, and what they called it was a ‘minor stroke’, and all of a sudden - out of the blue - I didn’t have any control over this arm. So that was a little scary.”

Praising the staff who cared for him at Frimley Hospital in Surrey, he added: “I have to say, I had the most fantastic care and attention from Frimley Hospital where I went, blue lights flashing … the lot. Very exciting!”

“I didn’t want to say anything at the time because I didn’t want anything surrounding, you know. I really don’t want sympathy, please don’t do that because it will clutter up my inbox,” he said.

May’s stroke came just four years after he suffered a “small” heart attack.

After finding out he had torn his buttock muscles in May 2020, doctors made another frightening discovery during an angiogram - telling the guitarist he was also suffering from three congested arteries.

“In the middle of the whole saga of the painful backside, I had a small heart attack. I say small, it’s not something that did me any harm,” May told his followers on Instagram at the time. “It was about 40 minutes of pain in the chest and tightness. It’s that feeling in the arms and sweating.”

After having three stents placed, he encouraged everyone over the age of 60 to get an angiogram.

“What seems to be a very healthy heart may not be,” he said. “I could have died from that. Anyway, I didn’t die, I came out.”

In 2021, May revealed he had endured a “truly horrible” few days after he and Dobson contracted Covid-19 at a friend’s birthday party.

Sharing a photo of a positive lateral flow test, he wrote at the time: “Yep. The shocking day finally came for me. The dreaded double red line. And yes – definitely NO sympathy please – it has been a truly horrible few days, but I’m OK. And I will tell the tale”.

- Additional reporting by NZ Herald