Rush Limbaugh has announced that he has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.

The radio personality, 69, broke the news live on his show on Monday afternoon, explaining to his millions of listeners that he will not be on the air for some days due to treatment.

Limbaugh said he first noticed something was wrong after suffering from shortness of breath over his birthday weekend of January 12 and was diagnosed on January 20. He said he had thought about not telling anyone of the news.

But the staunch Republican, who is a friend of President Donald Trump, added: 'There are going to be days that I'm not going to be able to be here.'

Limbaugh is thought to have started smoking when he was 16 but quit after a 'real bad case of bronchitis, almost like walking pneumonia'.

He has also spoken of his love of smoking cigars in the past, saying they are 'just a tremendous addition to the enjoyment of life'.

Rush Limbaugh announced Monday that he has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer

Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh at Mar-A-Lago in April 2019, left. Limbaugh has been spotted playing golf with the president on a number of occasions. The radio host is pictured with his fourth wife Kathryn Rogers, right

The radio personality is pictured speaking with President Donald Trump in 2018

Limbaugh started his radio career in 1971 as a DJ on a Pennsylvania radio station. He has been spotted playing golf with the president on a number of occasions.

Trump announced the host had signed a new four year contract on his show at a rally in Miami last month, telling supporters: 'We have great people. Rush just signed another four-year contract. He just wants four more years, OK?'

Limbaugh said Monday: 'This day has been one of the most difficult days in recent memory, for me, because I've known this moment was coming.

'I'm sure that you all know by now that I really don't like talking about myself and I don't like making things about me.

'One thing that I know, that has happened over the 31-plus years of this program is that there has been an incredible bond that had developed between all of you and me. It is a family type relationship to me.'

'So, I have to tell you something today that I wish I didn't have to tell you. It's a struggle for me, because I had to inform my staff earlier today,' Limbaugh said.

He added: 'I can't help but feel that I'm letting everybody down with this. But the upshot is that I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.'

How The Rush Limbaugh Show became the voice for conservative politics Rush Limbaugh started his radio career in 1971 as a DJ on a Pennsylvania radio station. He started the trend of conservative talk radio in 1988, during Ronald Reagan's presidency. He started his first national radio show from New York, later relocating to Palm Beach, Florida. Since then his show made him a household name with an estimated 14 million listeners in 2015. The hyper-partisan broadcaster has dominated talk radio with a raucous, liberal-bashing style that made him one of the most influential voices of American right-wing politics and inspired other conservative broadcasters including Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly. 'It's shocking to the industry, and it should be shocking to the political establishment,' said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, the trade industry publication for talk radio. Advertisement

'But we've got a great bunch of doctors, a great team assembled. We're at full-speed ahead on this, and it's just now a matter of implementing what we are gonna be told later this week. So I'll be back here. I hope I'll be back Thursday. If not, it will be as soon as I can — and know that every day I'm not here, I'll be thinking about you and missing you. Thank you very much.'

President Trump tweeted his well wishes for his friend some hours later.

'Many people do not know what a great guy & fantastic political talent the great Rush Limbaugh is. There is nobody like him. Looking for a speedy recovery for our friend!' Trump tweeted.

Following the news Megyn Kelly tweeted: 'Just heard the news about Rush Limbaugh, a man who loves this country and his listeners dearly, and is a tireless warrior for things he holds dear. Wishing him strength and tenacity as he takes on this new battle w/advanced lung cancer. Do what you do so well, Rush - FIGHT.'

Liz Cheney added: 'Prayers for @rushlimbaugh. No one has been a stronger or more effective warrior for the conservative cause and for the future of our country. No one has had a bigger impact. We’re in this fight with you, Rush.'

Limbaugh told listeners in 2013: 'I started smoking when I was 16. I went to electronics school in Dallas at age 16. Anyway, I was the youngest in this school by four or five years and everybody smoked.

'So I started smoking. I was 16. Let's see, it was 1980, '81, '82, somewhere around there when I quit.

'One day I got a real bad case of bronchitis, almost like walking pneumonia, so I could not smoke a cigarette without coughing spasms.

'So I said, 'Well, I'm never gonna have a better time than now to quit when I can't smoke.' So I quit then.'

WHAT IS LUNG CANCER? Lung cancer is one of the most common and serious types of cancer. Around 228,000 people are diagnosed with the condition every year in the US. There are usually no signs or symptoms in the early stages of lung cancer, but many people with the condition eventually develop symptoms including: - a persistent cough - coughing up blood - persistent breathlessness - unexplained tiredness and weight loss - an ache or pain when breathing or coughing You should see a doctor if you have these symptoms. Treating lung cancer Treatment depends on the type of mutation the cancer has, how far it's spread and how good your general health is. If the condition is diagnosed early and the cancerous cells are confined to a small area, surgery to remove the affected area of lung may be recommended. If surgery is unsuitable due to your general health, radiotherapy to destroy the cancerous cells may be recommended instead. If the cancer has spread too far for surgery or radiotherapy to be effective, chemotherapy is usually used. There are also a number of medicines known as targeted therapies. They target a specific change in or around the cancer cells that is helping them to grow. Targeted therapies cannot cure lung cancer but they can slow its spread. Source: NHS Advertisement

His producer Bo Snerdley tweeted: 'Those of you who are listening to the Rush Limbaugh show now. Pray with us. Thank you. God Bless you Rush Limbaugh. Love you so much Rush.'

The president was seen enjoying lunch with Limbaugh three days before Christmas at Trump's West Palm Beach golf club. The two also spent Good Friday together last year during a break in the Sunshine State.

Conservative radio host Limbaugh has been one of the president's most vocal supporters, claiming Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report was 'bogus from the beginning'.

He called the probe into possible collusion with the Russians a 'manufactured coup'.

In 2015 he defended smokers, telling a listener: 'There ought to be some measure of appreciation for people who buy tobacco products, despite the forces arrayed against them;

'It's getting harder and harder to use tobacco products, unless you want to call marijuana tobacco, and you can do that anywhere, for the most part.

'But the fact of the matter is they have to endure a lot, the public hates them, they're despised, they can't smoke in places of comfort anymore, can't even smoke outside in a park! And yet their actions and their taxes and their purchases are funding children's health care programs.

'I'm just saying there ought to be a little appreciation shown for them, instead of having them hated and reviled. I would like a medal for smoking cigars, is what I'm saying.'

Limbaugh's announcement come at a tumultuous political time, as the conclusion of President Donald Trump's impeachment trial nears.

The hyper-partisan broadcaster has dominated talk radio with a raucous, liberal-bashing style that made him one of the most influential voices of American right-wing politics and inspired other conservative broadcasters including Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly.

'Rush you are in our prayers,' Beck tweeted. 'We live in a time of modern miracles. Millions are praying you find one.'

Kate Rogers and Rush Limbaugh attend the Andrea Bocelli concert at The Mar-a-Lago Club on February 28, 2010 in Palm Beach, Florida

From left to right: Jack Nicklaus and Rush Limbaugh pictured with Rudy Guiliani and Marvin Shanken during at The PGA National Golf Club on March 21, 2011 in West Palm Beach, Florida

The media figure's endorsement and friendship is a conservative political treasure. His idol, Ronald Reagan, wrote a letter that Limbaugh read on the air in December 1992 and which sealed his reputation among conservatives: 'You've become the number one voice for conservatism in our country,' Reagan wrote.

Two years later, Limbaugh would be so widely credited as key to Republicans' takeover of Congress for the first time in 40 years, he was deemed an honorary member of the new class.

Limbaugh has frequently been accused of hate-filled speech, including bigotry and blatant racism through his comments and sketches such as 'Barack the Magic Negro,' a song featured on his show that said Obama 'makes guilty whites feel good' and that the politician is 'black, but not authentically.'