Alex Hollywood has revealed that she was diagnosed with benign skin cancer.

The 54-year-old, who is going through a divorce with Bake Off star Paul, urged her followers to get checked out by a GP if they notice any skin abnormalities.

She wrote that the diagnosis was “a bit of a wake-up call and payback for those years I spent poolside and mucking around in boats as a scuba instructor, in and out of the water with little or no sunscreen”.

Posting a video on Instagram from her kitchen, she said: “It did freak me out a little bit at first” but a specialist “dealt with it straight away, very quickly and very painlessly”.

She said: “Everything’s going to be fine and everything’s going to go back to normal.”

Hollywood, who was wearing a small plaster on her face, told her followers: “If you notice anything unusual about your skin, any marks that won’t go away, any moles that change shape, go and get them checked out.

“If you get them checked out and dealt with straight away, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

“There is nothing to be scared of. It can be dealt with.”