22 October 2024, 10:57
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Getty
Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood producer who was jailed for rape, has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Weinstein, 72, is suffering from chronic myeloid leukaemia, a kind of cancer that affects the bone marrow and white blood cells, according to multiple reports in the US.
A representative for the disgraced producer declined to comment, adding that he felt “profound dismay at the speculation surrounding his medical condition”.
“It is both troubling and unacceptable that such private and confidential health matters have become a subject of public discourse,” the spokesman added.
“Out of respect for Mr Weinstein’s privacy, we will offer no further comment.”
Read more: CPS drops indecent assault case against disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein
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Getty
According to the NHS, chronic myeloid leukaemia is “usually treatable”.
Weinstein is undergoing treatment at the Riker’s Island prison facility in New York, where he is being held as he awaits a retrial.
The retrial relates to a 2020 rape conviction in Manhattan that was overturned earlier this year.
Weinstein is also serving a 16-year prison sentence for rape and sexual misconduct after an incident in which he appeared uninvited in a woman’s hotel room at a Los Angeles film festival.
Weinstein became one of the most prominent focuses of the #MeToo movement in 2017. Multiple women came forward with accounts of his alleged behaviour.
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Alamy
Earlier this year the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK said it had discontinued its indecent assault case against Weinstein following a review of the evidence, saying “there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”.
The former Hollywood film producer was facing two criminal charges of alleged indecent assault against a woman, who is now aged in her 50s, in London in 1996.
Weinstein has denied all allegations against him.
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Alamy
He has had several health issues in recent years, and underwent emergency heart surgery last month.
He was hospitalised earlier this year after getting Covid-19 and pneumonia in both lungs.
He also underwent treatment for diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, and fluid on his heart and lungs.
Weinstein was one of Hollywood’s most prominent producers over multiple decades, producing many major critical and commercial successes, including Pulp Fiction, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, Gangs Of New York and Shakespeare In Love.
In 2020 he was stripped of his honorary CBE awarded for his contribution to the British film industry.