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NZ Herald
17-05-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Broadcaster Nigel Latta shares journey with inoperable cancer diagnosis
'You know you're a bit f**ked when the surgeon is tearful,' says Nigel, 57. 'Initially, we were hoping it was just something that could be removed. Our friend Tanya, who's a doctor, came with us to the next appointment. That was when we learned I had an inoperable tumour at the bottom of my stomach, as well as lymph node activity away from the tumour.' Natalie, 56, admits that they pushed the surgeon to give them a prognosis. 'I told him, ' We're both psychologists – we can take it. How long does he have to live?' The poor surgeon was saying he really didn't like to do that because he didn't know for sure. But eventually he said, 'Alright, six to 12 months.'' Nigel admits he simply didn't know how to process the news. 'I felt like everything in my brain kind of unplugged. I remember looking up at the sky and thinking, 'I have no idea what to do now.'' The couple, who has five children aged from 14 to 24 between them, booked into a hotel to give themselves some time and space to work out what happened next. 'We wanted to gather our thoughts before we came back to see the kids,' shares Natalie. 'We made some decisions together that night. Of course we were devastated, but we pledged to each other to not to become bitter or take it out on anyone else.' The pair says they've been overwhelmed by the incredible support from family, friends and the public, who have watched Nigel throughout the years on Beyond the Darklands and The Politically Incorrect Guide To Parenting shows, as well as taking advice from his books. Nigel embarked on treatment, and a combination of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and 'wonder drugs' meant his health was looking more positive. But then in December last year, he developed an ominous cough. 'Everything was dormant and looking really great,' says Natalie. 'When he started coughing, everyone was sure it wouldn't have spread to his lungs, but then the scans came back and they said, 'It looks like it's spread to your lungs.'' Nigel was told that if his new treatment didn't work, he had four weeks to live. 'At that stage, six to 12 months was sounding fantastic,' jokes Nigel. The drugs he's currently taking work for 62% of people, and they're helping Nigel, who's confident he'll now live for 'years and years'. Smiles Natalie, 'That's the thing with Nigel – he's so incredibly positive. He was immediately sure it would work.' Nigel believes there are two things that are good predictors of cancer survival – a positive outlook and a reason for living. 'I have both of those things – a good attitude and my app,' he laughs. 'No, no, of course it's Natalie. She's wonderful, fantastically clever, irreverent and fearless. I do really love the app too, though!' The app in question, Parentland, is something Nigel, along with Natalie, has poured hours into, in the hope of helping parents with evidence-based advice tailored to the unique developmental stage of each child. Nigel's always been acutely aware of the dangers of societal inequality, and hopes the app goes some way to bridging the gap for Kiwis who don't fall into the 3% of people who get into the public system and the vast majority who can't afford to pay for private counselling. 'I just believe everyone should be able to support their children through behavioural, eating or sleep issues,' explains Nigel. 'It shouldn't just be for the extreme sufferers or those who can afford a private psychologist. It's just not fair.' It was actually through the app that Nigel and Natalie first met. He'd been sent a copy of Natalie's book Smart Mothering to review and was wowed by it. 'It was a really good book, full of research and rigour,' he recalls. 'I thought it'd be good for the app. I was keen to get her on board, so I invited her to Circus Circus [café] for coffee.' Despite both studying psychology at the University of Otago, the pair had never previously crossed paths. At the time, Natalie had just had funding denied for group therapy for women with postnatal depression. 'I was so frustrated by that experience because it made absolutely no sense,' she tells. 'Seeing a psychologist one-on-one is so expensive, and this group would have reduced the cost by 80%. I was all for the app!' It was after Natalie separated from her first husband that Nigel summoned the courage to ask her on a date. 'Our relationship was sort of a slow burn at first because we were colleagues and friends,' he says. 'But after that first dinner out, we were pretty much bang in love. At least, I was!' Laughs Natalie, 'I wasn't far behind. Nigel's the kindest person. I love how clever, gentle and funny he is. We're always laughing. It just feels wonderful being together.' Nigel consulted Natalie's daughter about the style of engagement ring and 'shocked the hell' out of her with a romantic proposal in Queenstown in October 2022. Although Nigel wouldn't wish it on anyone, he does say that being diagnosed with incurable cancer crystallises what's important in life. 'The nice thing is that I enjoy working more now than I did before,' he enthuses. 'I always used to like doing speaking gigs. It was always kind of fun. But now it just feels like a real privilege to go and do it. 'I've been telling people that Parentland would be ready in three months for about a decade. After my diagnosis, I realised I needed to actually get this thing finished. Natalie and I have spent thousands of hours on it. It's here and people are now using it!' He also confesses he's much soppier. 'I think that's the gift of cancer,' he muses. 'Because I could have just spent the next 30 years taking everything for granted that's important to me, like most people. I think everyone knows that love is really the only thing that matters, but it's letting that change your behaviour.' To that end, Natalie accompanies him on any trips he takes for speaking events, and they work together on the app and in therapy. Natalie divides her time between the Shelley Beach Practice for eating disorders and working at home. Nigel joins in to help some couples therapy sessions. 'I genuinely love the fact our family business is helping people,' says Nigel. 'Being in love has changed the questions that I ask when I do couples work. I used to ask a lot about things that people enjoyed doing together, but now I'm much more interested in how people feel when they're together. Now when I see love, it's like, 'Oh, they'll be all right. Love is there.''
NZ Herald
07-05-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Nigel Latta on how cancer has changed his approach to money
It was only a few months later that Latta revealed a mixture of chemotherapy and medicine had removed the terminal aspect of his diagnosis. 'The thing I've discovered is that oncology, there's lots of paths and options and there's all these kind of new wonder drugs coming out,' he told Liam Dann on the podcast in late March. 'The original tumour is kind of gone and all of the original metastatic stuff is gone. It jumped fence a little bit, but that's now on the retreat. 'So things are looking pretty good. I've had some dire moments in the last nine months.' The experience has had on lasting impact on Latta. 'I've become a huge advocate of insurance. [My wife] Natalie and I, everyone [who] comes over, we just grill 'em; have you got health insurance, check your assurance, have you got income protection?' In his decades-long career as a clinical psychologist, including fronting a dozen TV shows, money and personal finance has come up several times, including his TVNZ1 series Mind Over Money. However, his experience with cancer has put things into perspective. 'After you take care of the basics and you can pay the bills and feed the kids and do all that kinda stuff, [money] doesn't matter. I'd trade anything to be free of the whole cancer cloak. 'The money stuff literally doesn't matter to me. What matters is time. Money buys me time because insurance has meant that I've been able to get access to some of those drugs and, literally, I think I'd be dead now if I hadn't been able to do that.' He does have one bit of advice for people who are betting big on a winning Lotto ticket for their financial success: 'I think I've bought them about once or twice. To me ... Lotto feels like you're giving up. If your financial plan is Lotto, you've given up, and so you need to kind of get a better financial plan.' As a psychologist, he can understand the appeal. 'I think it's just that immediate thing. We're really good at imagining spending the money and what it would be like and the rest of it, and we don't imagine the vast swimming pool full of ping pong balls ... 'And actually, you're better off putting that $5 towards paying down some expenses or buying a coffee or anything.' Now that cancer is on the backburner, Latta is refocusing on his passion for writing, and on providing sound advice to make people's lives easier. His latest venture is Parentland, an app he has been developing for several years that is designed to give people advice personalised to their kids' development and their temperament. 'So if you've got a stubborn 9-year-old, that's different to an easy-going 5-year-old. Yeah. And so the way that you get those two kids to go to bed at a time that works for everyone is gonna be different. 'And so we've kind of been able to take that kind of secret source of how to do that and put that into an app.' There's a lot of evidence-based material in the app, Latta said, lamenting the vast range of AI-based material available that some parents are relying on. 'This is a thing I've been working on for, I don't know, it really has been kind of 20 years. A lot in the last 10 years and intensively over the last six, and [I've] put thousands of hours into this thing. 'But I think it's really good and I think it can be helpful for people, and we're deliberately pricing it low so that as many people as possible can get access to it. 'We don't want it to be something that only people with tons of money can afford. It's like less than a coffee a week.' Listen to the full episode to hear more from Nigel Latta about his journey from psychologist to presenter, and how his cancer journey has shaped his life going forwards. Money Talks is a podcast run by the NZ Herald. The series is hosted by Liam Dann, business editor-at-large for the Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003.
