Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women, affecting approximately 1 in 8 women in their lifetime. Many celebrities have spoken out about their experiences with breast cancer, helping to raise awareness of the disease and encourage other women to get screened regularly.
Table of Contents
Celebrities who have had breast cancer
When celebrities speak out about their experiences, it helps to normalize the conversation about breast cancer and reduce the stigma associated with it. This can encourage other women to get screened regularly and to seek treatment early if they are diagnosed with breast cancer, and so should you!
Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate is an American actress known for her roles as Rachel’s sister Amy in Friends, and the Netflix dark tragicomedy series Dead to Me, for which she won several accolades. Her mother had survived breast cancer, so Applegate was diligent about her yearly checkups. At one point, in 2008, her doctor found cancer and scheduled a round of radiation. The cancer was not life-threatening, and Applegate followed the recommended treatment and had a full recovery.
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John is best known for her role in the classic movie Grease alongside John Travolta. After her initial diagnosis of the disease in 1992, she had two more bouts with breast cancer, as she had a recurrence of the disease in 2013 and 2017. With the 2017 recurrence, the cancer had spread to her bones and progressed to stage 4. Newton-John passed away on 8 August 2022 at age 73 at her home due to the disease. She remained one of the best-known advocates for breast cancer awareness in the world.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
The Seinfeld star received her biopsy result the morning after she won her sixth Emmy for her TV show Veep. Louis-Dreyfus received rounds of chemo while her show was on break, and a year later, tests showed her cancer was gone. The actress used her experience and fame to push for universal health care and to help women afford breast reconstruction ever since.
Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith was 73 and receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer when she began filming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2007. Smith earlier had found a lump she wrongly thought was benign. After 2 years of treatment, doctors deemed her cancer-free.
Kylie Minogue
Australian singer Kylie Minogue was 36 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, telling People magazine that it was like ‘the earth had kind of slipped off its axis.’ She underwent a lumpectomy and chemotherapy and was declared cancer-free a year later.
Cynthia Nixon
The Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon revealed she had been diagnosed with and treated for stage 1 cancer in 2006 after a routine checkup. She later revealed to ABC News that she had been expecting to develop breast cancer at some point in her life as her mother had survived the disease when Nixon was just 12 years old. After her diagnosis, the actress became an ambassador for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and has been advocating for breast cancer awareness and regular screenings.
Judy Blume
The renowned children’s author Judy Blume revealed in a blog post she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 after a routine ultrasound. 6 weeks after her diagnosis, she received a mastectomy, and noted that it was quick and caused very little pain. In her blog post, she wrote, “My friends who’ve had breast cancer have been so helpful and supportive I can never thank them enough. They got me through this. They were my inspiration. If we can do it, you can do it! They were right.”
Edie Falco
Sopranos actress Edie Falco was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003 while working on the show. On receiving the diagnosis she told Patient Resource: “I was in a panic, to tell you the truth. I couldn’t walk or breathe. I come from a family with a lot of cancer and when I heard that word, all I could think was ‘funeral.’ I just went numb, and then I moved on to thinking, ‘How am I going to get through this?” After undergoing treatment, she was given the all-clear in 2004.
Miranda McKeon
The Anne with an E actress was adjusting her shirt in a bathroom when she felt a lump on her breast, she told People. When her biopsy came back in June 2021, McKeon found out she had stage III breast cancer. She was just 19. “I didn’t think anything could be wrong because of my age,” she said. While it is uncommon for teenagers to be diagnosed with breast cancer, it also means she had better chances, and she’s doing great now.
Shannen Doherty
Shannen Doherty, an actress best known for her role on Beverly Hills 90210 was diagnosed in 2015 and achieved remission through a combination of treatments. Then, in February 2020, she shared that her cancer had returned and had metastasized. Despite her challenges, she did not back away from acting. “I’m not signing off,” she told Elle. “I feel like I’m a very, very healthy human being.”
Stay updated on all of the latest news by subscribing to the ITP Live newsletter below or by clicking the push notifications.