Bernard Tapie, newspaper owner and former owner of Olympique Marseille and government minister under President Mitterrand, has been operated on at the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco.

The often controversial businessman underwent emergency surgery for a burst peritoneum in the middle of the week, and after 48 hours in hospital is now convalescing at his home in Saint-Tropez, local French daily Monaco Matin reports.

The former minister suffers from cancer of the stomach and esophagus. He had already been operated on in Paris in January, and three quarters of his stomach had been removed. Since then, he has been fighting the disease and is undergoing more chemotherapy while continuing to live as normal a life as possible.