{"id":261387,"date":"2026-01-01T09:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/261387\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T09:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:21:09","slug":"dance-star-and-cork-resident-michael-flatley-opens-up-on-riches-cancer-diagnosis-and-his-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/261387\/","title":{"rendered":"Dance star and Cork resident Michael Flatley opens up on riches, cancer diagnosis, and his faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lord of the Dance star discusses singing rebel songs with the Prince of Monaco, money, media backlash and a life-threatening diagnosis\n<\/p>\n

The dancing star, whose ambitions to contest the Presidential election were revealed during an ongoing court case surrounding his multimillion Castlehyde estate, has revealed that he still visits the home, located just outside Fermoy, but is currently in the market for a property in Dublin.<\/p>\n

In August, Chicago-native Flatley was ordered by the High Court to provide security for costs, ahead of upcoming legal proceedings against a number of parties over restoration work on his Cork mansion after a fire in June 2016.<\/p>\n

While the ongoing legal battle didn\u2019t come up in the interview, Flatley did reveal that he is still between Ireland and his principal homeplace in Monaco, where he says the current Prince is fond of a rebel song.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Monaco,\u201d he said. \u201cI live between Monaco and Ireland. Our main estate is in Cork, but we are now looking for a place in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Flatley outside Castlehyde.<\/p>\n

\"Lord<\/p>\n

Lord of the Dance star Michael Flatley spoke to Irish documentary maker Colm Flynn<\/p>\n

News in 90 Seconds – January 1st 2026 <\/p>\n

\u201cPrince Albert is very Irish in his heart, and very pro-Irish, and we can\u2019t finish a night without signing \u2018(The Fields of) Athenry\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flatley became a global megastar following the sold-out \u2018Riverdance\u2019 show, which premiered at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Millstreet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t heard of it, I had no idea (how big it was), but there was a few quid in it and I was going to be able to dance,\u201d said Flatley, who spoke in-depth about his upbringing in Chicago, and the embarrassment he felt having been fired from the show the night before it was due its second run in London over contract issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy poster was all over the city, and I was in my London apartment when I got the call that I was out of the show,\u201d said Flatley. \u201cThey couldn’t come to agreements on contracts, creative control, and money.\u201d The dance star, following a \u2018devastating\u2019 call to his father, was too embarrassed to leave the house or to face anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so angry, I remember kicking the table and throwing a chair across the room. And of course, you begin blaming yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mind telling you, I went down to France, and I went on a bit of a bender for about 10 days. I just had to get away from Ireland, the Irish and English press and the tabloids. I was being cut to ribbons.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Flatley with dancers at the 3Arena at an Irish launch of Lord of the Dance in 2024<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t face into my local restaurants or pubs, I just couldn\u2019t face anybody, it was a devastating time. They were saying I was an \u2018ego monster\u2019 in the press. Anyone who knows me or dealt with me knows \u2013 at least in my opinion \u2013 that\u2019s the last thing I am.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey confused the guy dancing on stage with the real person, and that continued.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, Flatley started his own theatre production, \u2018Lord of the Dance\u2019, following his father\u2019s advice, which has since grossed over $1 billion. At his peak, Flatley was earning around \u00a31.6 million a week and was asked whether he was able to keep his steady faith in the face of such riches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drank it up, I ate it up, I enjoyed every second,\u201d said Flatley. \u201cI enjoyed every glass of wine, every kiss, every race in the car, every seat on the private jet, every hotel suite. I turned around and said, \u2018Yes.\u2019 I never gave in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1994, I was absolutely broke, but I had created something in my mind that the world had never seen, and it proved to be right. By 1997, I did the Oscars. By the end of the year, I outsold all the biggest rock bands in the world, in the biggest arenas around the world.<\/p>\n

\n

That\u2019s my biggest fear, that I\u2019ll be lying on my deathbed saying, \u2018I wish I\u2019d have just tried that<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIf I told you then, in 1994, that some guy from Chicago who does the jig and gets laughed at by his school chums, you\u2019d still be laughing, but I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, in 2003, the dance star was diagnosed with a melanoma on his face, causing doctors to take several inches of skin from the affected area. Two decades later, the Chicago native was facing an even more aggressive form of cancer, for which he received an operation to remove.<\/p>\n

Flatley has never disclosed what type of cancer he suffered, but said the diagnosis and subsequent treatment were \u201ca shock\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather not say (what type), because it doesn\u2019t matter what type of cancer,\u201d he told Colm Flynn, in an interview broadcast on both the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cCancer is a brutal, brutal disease. They did the tests, and the doctor said, \u2018We can start on chemo and hope for the best, or we can just go in and operate. But if we do that, at the stage you\u2019re at right now and the speed it\u2019s moving, we have to do it immediately.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If you decide to take me, Lord, I will have no regrets.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cSo I had literally 10 seconds to say, \u2018Yes, let\u2019s go in and do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Flatley told Flynn it was his faith that kept him strong through one of the most difficult periods in his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first question was, \u2018How did I get here? How did this happen?\u2019 And I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever been through anything like this, but when you\u2019re lying on that white trolley, in a white-walled corridor with a white ceiling, and it\u2019s always, for some reason, freezing cold in those bloody places.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt so all alone, and I was quickly reminded that I came into this world all alone, and that I\u2019ll leave this world alone, but not, because God was with me when I got here, God has been with me every day since, and God will make the decision now.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you decide to take me, Lord, I will have no regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve told anybody this, but I said to the two nurses there the saying that we used to have as kids, \u2018Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; and if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord, my soul to take.\u2019 And they held my hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was in my head was my wife and my son\u2026my immediate family, my siblings\u2026what was in my head was, \u2018Have I made them proud?\u2019, \u2018Have I done enough of the things that I said I\u2019d do, that I\u2019d promised me, the little boy inside in me, the little boy that\u2019s still in there, have I done enough?\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Flatley and his wife Niamh. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my biggest fear, that I\u2019ll be lying on my deathbed saying, \u2018I wish I\u2019d have just tried that, I wish I\u2019d have just tried it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that will never happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Flatley said he \u2018didn\u2019t have the time\u2019 to reflect on whether that feeling extended to the time taken away from family through his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an artist, so I\u2019m very emotional, so I began crying and thinking what if this is the end, and I don\u2019t come out, and I was seeing their faces and hugging them from my heart, so that they would feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNever, he makes all the decisions. When God rings the bell, I will gladly answer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lord of the Dance star discusses singing rebel songs with the Prince of Monaco, money, media backlash and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,10893,19,17,34269,4778],"class_list":{"0":"post-261387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-eurovision","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-kevin-galvin","14":"tag-michael-flatley"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115819111241109910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}