Pop singer Marianne Faithfull has admitted to TV host Phillip Schofield that she has the hepatitis C virus, which affects the liver. Marianne Faithfull, now aged 60, was diagnosed with being infected with it back in the 1990s.

Marianne Faithfull, who found fame in the 1960s with hits like As Tears Go By, had been talking to Phillip Schofield about her recent treatment for breast cancer on This Morning, the programme he presents on ITV1.

Hepatitis C is a virus carried in the bloodstream that can cause potentially lethal liver problems, and for which there is no vaccine available.

Marianne Faithfull, who is a former heroin addict, admitted she had taken “a lot of risks, ” and, although she didn’t say so, it is possible she contracted the virus at that point in her life.

Hepatitis C virus is usually transmitted through blood-to-blood contact but can remain dormant in the body. A person can contract hepatitis C by sharing needles for drug use, tattooing or body piercing, by getting a blood transfusion from someone carrying the disease, or by being born to an infected mother.

Actress Pamela Anderson, famous for starring in Baywatch, also has hepatitis C that she said she got from sharing a tattoo needle with her ex-husband, the rock musician Tommy Lee.