The 52-year-old anchor revealed in an interview with Stellar magazine, that he'd been relaxed in the lead-up to a doctor's appointment that was arranged to look at what he believed to be an ingrown hair.
"One night, I recall saying to my colleague on set: ‘God, I can’t wait for the news to be over, I feel abysmal'," he told the publication.
"I got an appointment the next morning. He looked at it and said, ‘I’m really concerned about this Peter. This could be lymphoma.’'
For Peter, who has reported on his fair share of cancer stories, living this out himself was eye-opening.
"I had never been in that situation myself...I have sat in front of families with kids dying, and with [late surgeon and cancer sufferer] Chris O’Brien. But suddenly my mind was there," he said.
"It wandered to places I didn’t want it to wander. I was calm, but it was going. This was the most challenging thing I have faced."
Overton's wife, former Studio 10 presenter Jessica Rowe, revealed she 'felt sick to my stomach' when he revealed the news.
Fortunately, the lump ended up being less sinister than cancer — just a particularly vicious virus.
The couple, who appeared in the Stellar spread alongside their two daughters Giselle and Allegra, revealed the health scare brought their family closer and put 'things into perspective.'
Rowe opened up to the magazine about her recent decision to leave Studio 10, after more than four years on the panel.
"You have to listen to what your instinct and your heart are telling you, and I knew that it was time. I needed and wanted to be present for our daughters. I wanted to be there in the mornings," she said.
This article originally appeared on New Idea.
