19 Celebrities Whose Lives Have Been Touched by Breast Cancer
Even for people who haven’t been diagnosed with it, breast cancer often feels personal. Since this disease affects one in eight women over the course of a lifetime, pretty much all of us have a family member or close friend who’s battled it. Not to mention that we also see breast cancer’s impact mirrored in pop culture time and time again.
The same entertainment world that serves as our everyday escape also serves as a regular reminder that nobody is immune from breast cancer’s devastating effects—not even the most familiar, famous faces. For example, think of the cast of whatever ’90s TV series you were obsessed with—Beverly Hills 90210, Married With Children, Seinfeld, Sex and the City. Or if those aren’t your thing, think of the anchors of whatever morning show has long been an anchor of your a.m. routine. Chances are, a star from one of these shows has had breast cancer. The same is true of our favorite reality TV stars, authors, actors from movies we grew up watching on repeat, comedians who make us laugh ’til we cry, and even top-tier athletes we’ve watched in awe.
All of these stars share a certain aura of invincibility—not to mention access to top-tier medical care, personal nutritionists and chefs, and trainers. Yet the truth is, many still find themselves in a fight for their lives against breast cancer, or find themselves fighting alongside someone they love dearly (and then adopting the cause as their own). As a reminder of this disease’s reach, here are 19 celebrities, among many more, whose lives have been touched by breast cancer.
Getty1/19Shannen Doherty
The actor of Beverly Hills 90210 fame, now 52, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and achieved remission through a combination of treatments. She memorably posted photos of her emotional head-shaving process while undergoing chemotherapy. Then, in February 2020, she shared that her cancer had returned as metastatic breast cancer (also referred to as MBC or stage IV)—meaning it had spread to other parts of her body and was no longer curable. She found this out after experiencing sharp back pain and getting scans. Despite her life-altering diagnosis, she’d participated in the 90210 reboot that aired in 2019, viewing it as an opportunity to prove that she could continue to do the work she loves despite her health challenge. “I’m not signing off,” she told Elle at the time. “I feel like I’m a very, very healthy human being.” n June of 2023, she shared an update via Instagram: A CT scan in January had found cancer in her brain. Doherty shared photos documenting the brain radiation and surgery she’d undergone afterward, her captions capturing the emotions she felt during that time. “The fear was overwhelming to me,” she wrote on Instagram in June when recalling the procedures. “Scared of all possible bad outcomes, worries about leaving my mom and how that would impact her. Worried that I would come out of surgery not me anymore. This is what cancer can look like.” But since then, she’s kept posting, remaining a courageous, outspoken breast cancer warrior that others fighting the disease look to for connection.
Getty2/19Guerdy Abraira
In May 2023, the Real Housewives of Miami star shared on Instagram that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer that March following a routine mammogram at age 45. “For now I am preparing for my upcoming surgery and then will come my treatment plan,” wrote the high-powered event planner and mom of two, a Haitian native. “This process is definitely intense and what I ask of you is empowerment not pity.” When she started chemo treatments, she began posting photos of her shaved head—which made her look no less gorgeous and even more fierce. Since then, she’s continued rocking the bare look at events, while sometimes wearing wigs as well. In September, she finished her last chemo round and moved on to 20 rounds of radiation. At BravoCon 2023, she confirmed—and celebrated—that she’s now cancer-free. “I am lucky that this breast cancer was discovered at an early stage—it is still scary of course, but I have love and support from those around me and that alone is the fuel that I need,” she wrote in her original Instagram post about her diagnosis. “For those who do not get health checks regularly, I urge you to. Your life depends on it.”
Getty3/19Cynthia Nixon
The star of Sex and the City (and its much-talked-about reboot) always knew she was at increased risk for breast cancer since her mom, Ann, was a survivor. “I always sort of thought, ‘I’m probably going to get breast cancer. There’s a really good chance.’” Nixon told Nightline's Cynthia McFadden. She ended up being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer during a routine mammogram, which she started getting at age 35 due to her family history. While the news was scary, she focused on the fact that they’d caught the disease when it was still curable. After a lumpectomy and radiation, she focused on helping raise others’ awareness about the disease, including becoming a spokesperson for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. “I want [women] most to hear me saying that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” she said in the interview. “So the only thing to really be afraid of is if you don’t go get your mammograms because there’s some part of you that doesn’t want to know, and that’s the thing that’s going to trip you up. That’s the thing that could have a really bad endgame,” Nixon said.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images4/19Mary J. Blige
The music icon—and 2023 Glamour Woman of the Year—lost her aunt to breast cancer and has since made it her mission to raise awareness among Black women that they have the highest risk of death from breast cancer, in part because many have triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive form that doesn’t respond as well to treatments. In fact, they have a 40-percent higher risk of dying from breast cancer than any other racial or ethnic group. Blige hopes to get the community talking about this health risk more. “I didn’t know about breast cancer or mammograms until I was 40 and I was in the music business and I was trying to take care of myself. My body started talking so I started listening,” she told Essence in 2021. “I found out about it at the GYN. They don’t discuss this when we’re children. They don’t say, ‘Go get a mammogram.’ You learn about this as you get older. So they don’t speak about it and that’s why they end up in the hospital with two weeks to live and now you know about it. That’s why it’s extremely important to me.” Part of the message she aims to spread: Black women should get mammograms younger (by age 40), and speak with their doctor about family history and screening closer to age 30, since they are more likely than other groups to be diagnosed at a young age. To spread the word, Blige has teamed up with Jill Biden and the Black Women’s Health Imperative. “Black women are often very private,” she told CBS This Morning. “We don't want people knowing our business. But the more we open up, the more it allows us to share information that can be lifesaving."
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Clea Shearer
In March 2022, the social-media-famous professional organizer and star of Get Organized with the Home Edit on Netflix found two small lumps in her right breast during a self-exam, but she initially convinced herself they were probably nothing—she was only 41 and had no family history of breast cancer. She was wrong: She was diagnosed with stage 1 invasive mammary carcinoma, an aggressive form of breast cancer, and later, she found out the cancer had also spread to nearby lymph nodes. Following a double mastectomy plus a second surgery to address complications, chemotherapy, and radiation, she finished treatments in November 2022. She’s opted to keep her hair closely cropped, however. "Yes, it’s still a reflection of having cancer… but that makes me proud, and I’ll wear it like a badge of honor," she told People.
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Katie Couric
The journalist and founder of Katie Couric Media found out that she had breast cancer in June 2022, following a routine mammogram. As her doctor delivered the news over the phone, “I felt sick and the room started to spin,” Couric wrote on her website. “I was in the middle of an open office, so I walked to a corner and spoke quietly, my mouth unable to keep up with the questions swirling in my head. What does this mean? Will I need a mastectomy? Will I need chemo? What will the next weeks, months, even years look like?” Couric opted for breast conservation surgery, which involved a lumpectomy paired with radiation and medication. She got through treatment and is now cancer-free. What scared her most, she wrote, was the idea of how bad things could have gotten if she'd waited longer to get her mammogram. “Please get your annual mammogram,” Couric wrote. “I was six months late this time. I shudder to think what might have happened if I had put it off longer.” Today, she is a high-profile advocate for more effective breast cancer screening, recently demanding that official guidelines be updated to allow women with dense breasts to receive additional screening covered by insurance.
Getty7/19Angelina Jolie
When the actress discovered she had a BRCA mutation that gave her an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer, she underwent a preventative double mastectomy to drop that risk to 5 percent—and despite being a private person, courageously penned two essays for The New York Times sharing details surrounding her diagnosis and decision, as well as encouraging others facing serious health issues. “Life comes with many challenges. The ones that should not scare us are the ones we can take on and take control of,” she wrote. Jolie’s mom, Marcheline Bertrand, passed away at age 56 after fighting ovarian cancer for a decade.
Getty8/19Maya Rudolph
One of the funniest comedians out there has a breast cancer connection that makes us tear up. When she was just 6 years old, the Saturday Night Live star lost her mom, Minnie Riperton, to breast cancer. Riperton was a superstar as well, a soul singer best known for the 1975 mega-hit “Lovin’ You,” which she originally wrote to soothe baby Maya. Riperton underwent a double mastectomy, became a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society, and received the Cancer Courage award from president Jimmy Carter, but breast cancer claimed her life just four years later, when she was just 31. It’s not a story Rudolph has often told. “For many, many years, I couldn’t even touch this conversation,” Rudolph shared with The New York Times in 2018. “I don’t remember if I ever did proper grieving.”
2021 NBCUniversal Media, LLC.9/19Hoda Kotb
The coanchor of the Today show has said she wouldn’t be the person she is today if it weren’t for her 2007 breast cancer diagnosis at age 43, which marked a major turning point in her life. Her gynecologist discovered breast lumps during a routine annual exam, and she ended up undergoing a mastectomy—and completely reimagining her future once she got through treatment. That included a “wildly fearless” new attitude that she says helped her land her current job. “Cancer shaped me, but it did not define me,” she explained at a luncheon for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. “It’s part of me, but not all of me. It just goes to show you that in my early 40s, I was sick, I was getting divorced, and I was in a job that I wasn’t suited for. I’m now 53 years old, I have a guy I love, a baby who is the light of my life, and a job that’s pretty cool too.”
Getty10/19Julia Louis-Dreyfus
In 2017, the morning after winning a record-breaking sixth Emmy in a row for Veep, the actor found out that she’d been diagnosed with stage II breast cancer: “One in eight women get breast cancer. Today, I’m the one.” Her treatment included six rounds of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy; to celebrate the treatment finish line in October 2018, the Seinfeld alum’s sons did a memorable lip-sync rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” in a video the actor posted to her Instagram. “The good news is that I have the most glorious group of supportive and caring family and friends, and fantastic insurance through my union,” Louis-Dreyfus wrote in her initial tweet. “The bad news is that not all women are so lucky, so let’s fight all cancers and make universal health care a reality.”
Getty11/19Gabrielle Union
The actor, who starred in some of our favorite ’90s movies and made us love her all over again for sharing her surrogacy journey, lost her best friend, Kristen Martinez, to breast cancer. Martinez was diagnosed de novo with metastatic breast cancer—meaning by the time it was found, it was already metastatic breast cancer (it had spread to other parts of her body and wasn’t curable). She fought the disease for five years before passing away at age 32. During that time she spoke out as a passionate advocate for the millions of other women who, like her, were underinsured—and now Union carries on that mission as a breast-cancer activist. “Kristen serves as my inspiration day in and day out to advocate the importance of screening and early detection and expand awareness about breast cancer, particularly among young women and women of color,” Union told Essence. “There are just so many women out there who do not have the funds or are too fearful about what they may learn that they do not get screened.”
Getty12/19Judy Blume
Beloved author Judy Blume—responsible for inspiring countless young women to be readers and writers—has sold one million books for each year she’s been alive. And she’s 83. The Glamour Woman of the Year also happens to be a breast cancer survivor. In 2012 she revealed on her blog that she’d been diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma during a routine ultrasound, with no family history. "As I’ve told my friends who’ve also been treated for breast cancer, I’ve joined The Club—not one I wanted to join or even thought I would ever be joining—but here I am,” she wrote. “I’m part of this Sisterhood of the Traveling Breast Cells (apologies to Ann Brashares). Medical diagnoses can leave you feeling alone and scared. When it comes to breast cancer, you’re not alone, and scary though it is, there’s a network of amazing women to help you through it.”
Getty13/19Chaunte Lowe
Proving that even the most physically fit people are susceptible to breast cancer, the Team USA high jumper and bronze medalist trained for a fifth Olympic appearance while undergoing a double mastectomy and six rounds of chemotherapy for breast cancer. In 2018 she’d found a rice-size lump in her breast during a self-exam, but her doctor wasn’t too worried about it since, as a world-class athlete, Lowe was exceptionally healthy—not to mention young (age 35). But she was also exceptionally in tune with her body. “There was something internally tugging at me, telling me, ‘No. Pay attention to me,’” she said. Sure enough, when she went back for another scan less than a year later, the lump had tripled in size. In 2019 she was diagnosed with triple-negative invasive ductal carcinoma, an aggressive form of breast cancer that disproportionately affects Black women. Her decision to continue to train for Tokyo through her treatment proved extremely empowering. “It is a common belief that mindset plays a huge part in positive experiences when patients battle cancer,” she said. “Training for the Olympics helped me focus beyond my chaos toward a positive experience awaiting me in the future…and the media storm that comes from the Olympics would be a great way to bring attention to early detection, breast cancer awareness, and ways to fund research. I felt a sense of responsibility to use this platform to fight for the one in eight women who will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. We have to force change to happen.” Acknowledging her role in empowering people with breast cancer, in March, Lowe was appointed to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition.
Getty14/19Wanda Sykes
In 2011, at age 47, the actor-comedian revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she’d opted to undergo a double mastectomy and reconstruction, following the shock of finding out she had breast cancer during a cosmetic breast reduction: “I had the choice of, you can go back every three months and get it checked. Have a mammogram, MRI, every three months just to see what it’s doing. But I’m not good at keeping on top of stuff. I’m sure I’m overdue for an oil change and a teeth cleaning already.” Sykes’s family history of breast cancer also played into her choice to take preemptive action through surgery: “It sounds scary up front, but what do you want? Do you want to wait and not be as fortunate when it comes back and it’s too late?” she said.
@Imagez by LB15/19Christina Applegate
When the actor—who started getting mammograms at age 30 because her mom is a repeat breast cancer survivor—was diagnosed with the disease in 2008 at age 36, she was reluctant to share the news publicly. “I didn’t want to talk about it, but I had to, because young women were getting it, and people weren’t understanding that. My activism came out,” she told People. She was also horrified to learn that so many women turn down MRIs because of the cost: “An MRI saved my life. Had I waited for my mammogram, I would be dead right now,” said Applegate, whose doctor recommended the scan as an added precaution due to her high breast density. She underwent a double mastectomy and in 2017, after finding out that she carries the BRCA1 gene mutation, had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to further reduce her cancer risk. Since her initial diagnosis, she’s been focused on innovating ways to help women afford genetic testing and MRIs. In 2021, she revealed that she faces another health challenge: She has multiple sclerosis.
Getty16/19Robin Roberts
The Good Morning America host is one of many who were angered by revised recommendations put forward by a government panel in 2009 that said women didn’t need to start routine mammograms until age 50, and that self-exams held little benefit—that controversial guidance has since been walked back. The reason Roberts feels so passionate about this topic: She discovered her own triple-negative breast cancer during a self-exam while in her 40s and had to fight to get certain expensive tests to confirm her diagnosis (yes, despite her celebrity status). When she found her lump in 2007, “I called the doctor’s office and said, ‘Hey, I found a lump—can you move up the exam?’ They said, ‘No, we’re booked solid.’ And I’m thinking to myself, Wow, this really happens,” she told Prevention. “I reached out to Diane [Sawyer] and [ABC colleague] Deborah Roberts. Deborah gave me a referral.” Roberts’s frustration with the process led her to become a very outspoken breast cancer advocate: “That’s part of the reason I [went public]. I’m very blessed—I have good health care, a great job. But my mother kept saying, ‘You’re not the norm. So be the voice for those people who don’t have it as good as you do.’” Roberts underwent chemotherapy and a partial mastectomy and gets annual mammograms and ultrasounds plus a biannual MRI to watch for signs of disease.
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Miranda McKeon
The young 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. McKeon quickly learned that she was “one in a million,” because it is extremely rare for teenagers to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Her age means she has a chance at better outcomes, McKeon told People, and she is staying positive. “I'm making it my job to find the beauty in all of this,” she says. “I wouldn't have chosen this, I didn't choose this, I don't think anyone would choose this,” she said. “But I'm making it my job to try and pull something out of this.” She recently shared an Instagram video during Breast Cancer Awareness Month where she gave herself an injection of a post-cancer drug. “I feel so grateful to have this platform,” she wrote. “I became a more brave and vulnerable person when I decided to post my writing, baldness, tears and heart on this app. It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done and one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
Gregg DeGuire18/19Giuliana Rancic
Giuliana Rancic was beginning IVF treatments in 2011 when she learned that part of the procedure included a mammogram. The entertainment reporter was 36 years old — still four years away from the age doctors recommend women undergo annual breast cancer screening. And that mammogram, Rancic told E!, showed that she had breast cancer. “So trust me when I say I am very thankful to my doctor as well as my son, Duke, since I wouldn't have found it early if I wasn't trying to have a baby at that time,” Rancic said. She eventually opted for a double mastectomy, which wasn't easy, she said. But the experience made Rancic want to help women feel like themselves again — how they felt before their mastectomies — and so, she created FAB-U-WISH, a program that grants wishes to women going through breast cancer. Her advice to women now? “The key here is to make sure you are putting a mammogram on your to-do list every single year from 40 on — and if you are under 40, make sure to do a monthly self-exam,” she said. “Most women I meet who have had breast cancer tell me they found it themselves by feeling something on or around their breasts, so I can't stress the importance of doing self-exams at home each month and at your yearly check-up each year. Breast cancer has a very high survival rate if found early, so the key truly is to find it as early as you can.”
Astrid Stawiarz19/19Sheryl Crow
In a 2022 documentary about her, singer Sheryl Crow revealed the fact that she nearly skipped the 2006 mammogram that discovered she had cancer—specifically, stage I ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). “I've always been a healthy person who prioritized eating well and exercising, but at that time [when she considered delaying her mammogram] it seemed impossible to focus on anything other than getting through each day and keeping my career going,” Crow told People in an interview about the documentary. “Naturally, I found myself tempted to delay my annual mammogram visit—like so many women do when dealing with stressful periods of life, whether during a pandemic, career change, family issues, or just the daily grind.” But keeping that appointment, Crow said, saved her life. And now, she hopes that other women won't delay in getting the check-ups they need. “My story is a testament that you can go on to live a long, healthy life after diagnosis,” she said. “As a breast cancer survivor who credits early detection for saving my life, I have made it part of my life story to help educate women about the importance of scheduling their annual mammograms.”
