Celebrities Who Have Had Breast Cancer

Jessie J

Age at diagnosis: 37

In June 2025, Jessie J revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer and planned “to disappear for a bit” to undergo surgery, following her appearance at the Summertime Ball.

In a video shared to Instagram, the “Price Tag” singer said, “I’ve always shared everything that I go through in my life. Before ‘No Secrets’ came out, I was diagnosed with early breast cancer … I’m highlighting the word ‘early.’ Cancer sucks in any form, but I’m holding on to the word ‘early.’ I have been in and out of tests throughout this whole period.”

The singer, who shares two-year-old son Sky with boyfriend Chanan Safir Colman, joked that she’d come back to the stage with “massive t—,” then said humor was “one of the ways I get through hard times … This last 2 months have been so amazing, and having this go on along side it on the sideline’s has given me the most incredible perspective. BUT… Your girl needs a hug. 🫂🫀🔋 Also not getting massive t—. Or am I? No no… I must stop joking.”

Later that month, the singer underwent surgery and reported that her “cancer has all gone,” though later clarified that she was still awaiting test results. In July, she shared that the cancer had not spread and that she was due to have one more breast reconstructive surgery: “Lots of healing to go and one more surgery to make these cousins look more like sisters. But for now it’s gratitude time and I am changing my name to The LopJess monster 🧟‍♀️🌶️🍈🍳,” she wrote.

Tina Knowles

Age at diagnosis: 70

In the midst of writing her memoir, Matriarch, Tina Knowles found out she had stage 1 breast cancer in her left breast.  

Later that year, she underwent surgery to have the tumor removed as well as a breast reduction.

“I’m doing great,” she told PEOPLE. “Cancer-free and incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early.”

While she initially was hesitant to share her cancer journey publicly she ultimately did so in hopes that it could help other women.

“I think as women, sometimes we get so busy and we get so wrapped up and running around, but you must go get your test. Because if I had not gotten my test early, I mean, I shudder to think what could have happened to me,” she said, explaining that she had actually missed her scheduled mammogram due to Covid two years prior.

“I just thought I had done it. So you cannot play around with that,” she said.

Jenna Fischer

Age at diagnosis: 49

In October 2024, in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, The Office star shared that the previous year she was diagnosed with breast cancer following an inconclusive mammogram.

“They found something in my left breast,” she wrote on Instagram of a follow-up ultrasound. “A biopsy was ordered. Then, on December 1, 2023, I learned I had stage 1 triple positive breast cancer.”

Fischer went on to share that she later had a lumpectomy before undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. Starting in February, she wrote, she underwent 12 rounds of chemo and in June, began three weeks of radiation. Since then she had been treated with infusions of two other medications.

She concluded the post by sharing a photo with her kids and husband as they celebrated her final chemo and radiation treatments with confetti in their backyard.

“I’m happy to say that I was recently re-screened, and the treatments worked. I am cancer free. I will continue to be treated and monitored to help me stay that way,” she wrote. “Again, don’t skip your mammogram…. And know that should you get a breast cancer diagnosis, there is a village waiting to care for you.”

In April 2025, Fischer shared a hair growth update on Instagram writing, “I am borderline obsessed with my messy uncontrollably curly post-chemo bangs. They are giving me ’80s vibes all day and I’m here for it.”

Olivia Munn

Age at diagnosis: 42

In March 2024, Olivia Munn shared that for nearly a year she had been undergoing treatment for breast cancer after receiving a diagnosis in 2023.

“In February of 2023, in an effort to be proactive about my health, I took a genetic test that checks you for 90 different cancer genes,” she wrote alongside a carousel of images on Instagram. “I tested negative for all, including BRCA (the most well-known breast cancer gene). My sister Sara had just tested negative as well. We called each other and high-fived over the phone. That same winter I also had a normal mammogram.”

“Two months later I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she continued. “In the past ten months I have had four surgeries, so many days spent in bed I can’t even count and have learned more about cancer, cancer treatment and hormones than I ever could have imagined.”

Not long after sharing her diagnosis with the world, Munn sat down with PEOPLE to share more about her journey, which included a double mastectomy and freezing her eggs ahead of future treatments.

In September, Munn shared an overview of her cancer timeline on Instagram which most recently included a partial hysterectomy/oophorectomy in April 2024 and hormonal therapy treatment in August 2024.

Shortly after that, she shared that she and husband John Mulaney had welcomed their second child, a daughter, through gestational surrogate. “I had so many profound emotions about not being able to carry my daughter. When I first met our gestational surrogate we spoke mother to mother. She showed me so much grace and understanding, I knew I had found a real-life angel,” she wrote.

Danielle Fishel

Age at diagnosis: 43

In August 2024, Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel revealed on her podcast, Pod Meets World, that she had been diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). She told listeners that she initially was hesitant to open up about her experience so soon after diagnosis, but she realized that she might help someone pursue their own early detection.

“The only reason I caught this cancer when it is still stage zero is because the day I got my text message that my yearly mammogram had come up, I made the appointment,” the actress said. “The place you have the most to learn from is that at the very beginning of a story or in the very messy middle of a story. My first instinct when I was diagnosed was to do that clam-up thing … and then what I realized is, the more people I talk to, the more people have their own experiences.”

In January, she revealed that she was “officially” done with treatment after going through two surgeries as well as 20 rounds of radiation. At the time, she shared that after recovering from the side effects of radiation — which included a painful burn — she planned to begin hormone therapy.

D’Andra Simmons

Age at Diagnosis: 56

Real Housewives of Dallas alum D’Andra Simmons used her journey to encourage everyone to always do their breast self-exam.

The reality TV star first shared her diagnosis in July 2025 when she revealed via Instagram that she would be undergoing surgery at a medical center founded by her uncle.

“I didn’t think I would be the recipient of care at the UTSW Simmons Cancer Center my uncle Harold Simmons and his Foundation established almost 30 years ago, but now I have breast cancer,” she wrote.

“I am truly grateful to have such an excellent care team in place. I’m the 3rd woman on my mother’s side of the family to be diagnosed with breast cancer…that we know about. After today, I will add breast cancer survivor to a long list of life experiences.”

In a follow-up video published in commemoration of World Breast Cancer Research Day on Aug. 18, she revealed that she found the cancer herself and that it was lobular breast cancer. Overall, she said her “prognosis is very good,” and that she will be starting radiation as well as taking some medication.

Jill Martin

Age at diagnosis: 47

The Today contributor first revealed her diagnosis in August 2023, after she underwent testing for the BRCA gene and found out she had inherited the BRCA2 mutation.

“…to anyone who might be afraid of what the [genetic] test reveals, don’t be. Or if you’re thinking, ‘I’ll get my mammogram next week, or next month,’ don’t. Please don’t put it off. Don’t be that person,” Martin told PEOPLE. “Have the knowledge about your own health so you can talk with your family and your doctor about what’s right for you.”

The longtime Today show contributor underwent a double mastectomy, four months of chemotherapy — which she described as “physical and mental torture” — radiation, reconstructive surgery and a preventative procedure to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes.

“It totally changed my life in such powerful ways and in really beautiful ways too,” Martin, who is now cancer-free, told PEOPLE of her journey with cancer. “I was given the superpower to help educate and advocate for other people going through this and other families.”

Linda Evangelista

Age at diagnosis: 53

“It started out with my routine mammogram. I know we don’t like doing our mammograms. I’m the biggest procrastinator, but that’s one thing I was really faithful to,” the supermodel shared on The View in 2023.

“I have another disease that involves my lungs, and a lumpectomy that wasn’t so great ended up being a double mastectomy, which was the right decision for me,” she continued. “And I thought, you know, I’m not going to die of breast cancer.”

After her initial diagnosis in 2018, and bilateral mastectomy, her cancer returned in July 2022.

Followign her second diagnosis, she told WSJ. Magazine in 2023, she said to her oncologist, “Dig a hole in my chest. I don’t want it to look pretty. I want you to excavate. I want to see a hole in my chest when you’re done. Do you understand me? I’m not dying from this.”

She told the outlet that her prognosis was good, though she has “a horrible oncotype score” — a number that determines the risk of recurrence.

“I know I have one foot in the grave, but I’m totally in celebration mode,” she told the magazine.

Guerdy Abraira

Age at diagnosis: 45

Real Housewives of Miami star Guerdy Abraira shared her diagnosis in May 2023.

“I was in St. Barts having the time of my life when my doctor called me with results following a regular mammogram checkup. I have breast cancer,” her post began.

“It took me a while to process it all and this is why I took a break from social media last month as many noticed. Many of you reached out to check on me and I am thankful for your caring gestures.”

Abraira went on to explain that she is currently “preparing for my upcoming surgery and then will come my treatment plan,” adding, “This process is definitely intense and what I ask of you is empowerment not pity.”

While her diagnosis was initially stage zero, further tests revealed that there was an invasive tumor in her left breast and she was presented with a new diagnosis of stage 1B estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer. She then had a lumpectomy to remove the tumor.

She later went through four sessions of chemotherapy followed by 20 rounds of radiation over the next five months after learning that the cancer had a 36 percent chance of returning.

In November 2023 she was declared cancer-free, and shortly after, she told PEOPLE she considered herself “Guerdy 2.0.”

Monyetta Shaw-Carter

Age at Diagnosis: 44

Reality star and former radio personality Monyetta Shaw-Carter was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024. “I had a biopsy about 10 years ago and it came back benign,” she told PEOPLE.

“Then last year in September, I was doing a self-check because I felt this random sensation that I can’t really describe in my left boob. It was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It was literally like my body was alerting me that something was wrong.”

A month later, she went for her routine mammogram, where doctors found a lump. Shaw-Carter was diagnosed with “slow-growing” stage 1 invasive ductal carcinoma in November. After a lumpectomy in January and 16 rounds of radiation, she rang the bell on May 2 to mark the end of her treatment.

Samantha Harris

Age at diagnosis: 40 and 50

Diagnosed with breast cancer in March of 2014 – and deemed cancer-free that October – the TV host was able to see the silver lining in her situation. “While I lay in bed recovering from my mastectomy, my husband said to me, ‘Babe, when life gives you lemons, you gotta make lemonade’,” she recalled to PEOPLE. And the couple’s website, Gotta Make Lemonade, which “inspires positivity in the face of adversity,” per Harris, was born. “It’s a destination for visitors to submit their stories of overcoming a challenge – there are stories about battling through illness, infertility, injuries, depression,” she explained. “I didn’t realize just how much positivity could help you heal.”

In 2024, Harris shared on Instagram that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer again.

“I have some health news that I need to share that I never thought that I would be sharing again in my lifetime, but I have a recurrence of breast cancer,” she said. “And I feel so fortunate to have been able to guide, support and lead so many of you in Your Healthiest Healthy community, and I will continue to do so, and I will fight on and I will be okay.”

She spoke to PEOPLE in 2025 about the process of getting “back to the new normal” after the second diagnosis and subsequent surgeries, focusing on quality time with friends and family and prioritizing self-care.

Katie Couric

Age at diagnosis: 65

Katie Couric revealed in a personal essay on Sept. 28, 2022, that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The legendary journalist and author’s first husband Jay Monahan died of colon cancer in 1998 which spurred her to be an outspoken advocate and fundraiser for cancer research. She shared her own news in an effort to encourage her female followers to get their mammograms on time.

“Please get your annual mammogram,” wrote Couric. “I was six months late this time. I shudder to think what might have happened if I had put it off longer. But just as importantly, please find out if you need additional screening.”

October 2022 marked Couric’s first Breast Cancer Awareness Month since receiving her diagnosis. On the first day, she took to Instagram to “spread the word that screening saves lives.” The former TODAY Show co-anchor prompted her followers to post photos “with whoever or whatever inspires” them to prioritize their health.

To launch the social media movement, Couric shared a smiley shot of her and her daughters, Ellie and Caroline. “Here are two of my reasons,” she said in the caption.

Clea Shearer

Age at diagnosis: 40

Shearer had just released her first-ever magazine issue, announced the acquisition of her company and was about to start promotions for the second season of her hit Netflix series when everything came to a very sudden halt.

The professional organizer and star of Get Organized with the Home Edit was in New York City to film a segment for the Today show with her costar, best friend and business partner Joanna Teplin when she found two small lumps in her right breast during a self-exam. Within a few weeks, she learned she had stage 1 invasive mammary carcinoma, an aggressive form of breast cancer. She underwent chemotherapy, radiation and various surgeries, including a double mastectomy and a procedure to remove her ovaries. In September 2022, she announced that she had finished her final round of chemo.

At the time of diagnosis, Shearer told PEOPLE, “I felt something, a mass, a lump. But I didn’t know what a lump actually even felt like, so I was just in my hotel room Googling, ‘What does a breast tumor feel like?’ ”

“I think I had convinced myself, because of my age and because I don’t have a history of breast cancer in my family, that it was something, but it would not be a cancerous tumor,” the mom of two continued.

“[I want to] have people understand that if you feel anything amiss, you have to say something. You might not get a response from your doctor that you like. They might push it off and say you don’t need a test or we’ll get you in at your next physical. But we know our body’s best,” she said. “Self-examining is the best thing you can possibly do and it costs nothing. Self-examining is what saved me.”

While she was declared cancer-free in September 2022, she underwent an unexpected breast surgery in January 2025 after her doctor noticed a wound at her “incision site that was open to my implant.”

In April, Shearer said she was recovering from an emergency surgery “I prayed I wouldn’t need.”

“I had no choice but to completely remove my right implant which means I’m right back to a post mastectomy state,” she wrote on Instagram, explaining that she’d faced numerous issues following her 2022 mastectomy. “I am flat on one side and will need a prosthetic. After a 3 year journey, I can’t quite put into words how traumatizing this is for me.”

Later that month, Shearer announced that her book,  Cancer is Complicated: And Other Unexpected Lessons I’ve Learned, would be released in September 2025.

“I wanted to write Cancer is Complicated because it’s the book I wish I had on my bed stand when I was going through treatment,” Shearer told PEOPLE. “I wrote this book to make people feel less alone, less afraid, and more prepared for the journey to come.”

Hilary Farr

Age at diagnosis: 70

In 2012, after HGTV star Farr went in for a routine mammogram, doctors found a suspicious lump. She immediately underwent surgery, and lab results confirmed that the tumor was precancerous, not malignant. “I felt so much relief,” she told PEOPLE. “I moved on.”

But in late 2014, while Farr, then 70, was filming Love It or List It in Raleigh, North Carolina, a mammogram revealed a serious diagnosis: She had invasive breast cancer, a tumor that had spread into surrounding breast tissue. Farr underwent a second lumpectomy and after the procedure, “I was signed off by the medical oncologist saying, ‘You’re done. You’re fine. Off you go,’ ” Farr recalled.

Nearly two months later, a shocked Farr says she learned she was supposed to get radiation as a part of her course of treatment but was incorrectly told by the medical oncologist it was not necessary. “I was terrified, because I knew I had a very small window,” she said.

Her fear quickly turned to anger. “I felt absolute fury that someone could be so flippantly wrong,” she says. “I could have been dead.”

In March 2015 she then began a 28-day course of radiation, but seven months later, doctors found another suspicious breast growth. She underwent a third lumpectomy, and the tumor was considered precancerous. As of 2023, she was in remission.

“Fear of breast cancer stops a lot of women from getting checked. But as terrifying as it is, you face it,” she said, adding that coping with an illness alone is a mistake she doesn’t want others to make.

“Thinking that you should keep it a secret or just power through doesn’t help and it doesn’t heal,” she added. “If I can change that for one person, then that’s enough.”

Robin Roberts

Age at diagnosis: 46

In 2007, Good Morning America co-anchor Roberts announced her breast cancer diagnosis on air, sharing that she did not want the show’s viewers to hear it from anyone else besides her. “My family here [at ABC] knows, and my family at home knows,” she said during the broadcast. “And I’m very, very blessed and thankful that I found it early.” Roberts detailed that she discovered a lump during a self-examination, and that she would undergo an initial surgery just days after the announcement.

The television journalist completed eight chemotherapy treatments in January 2008.

More than a decade later, in February 2022, Roberts’ now-wife Amber Laign was diagnosed with breast cancer as well. Roberts spoke to Ellen DeGeneres about her wife’s diagnosis.

“Like many people, [Laign] had put off going to the doctor during the pandemic, and then at the end of last year, she followed through with a regular breast exam and it was discovered,” Roberts said in her emotional appearance on Ellen. “So the message is: get those regular exams, it can save your life.”

Laign completed radiation in July 2022 and in March 2023, Roberts said Laign’s prognosis “is excellent.”

Suzanne Somers

Age at diagnosis: 54

Somers history with cancer dated back decades before she first revealed on Larry King Live in 2001 that she had been receiving treatment for breast cancer after doctors first discovered the cancer during a routine mammogram the previous year. At the time, she said she planned to forgo chemotherapy. In 2007, she told the Los Angeles Times that after treating the disease with radiation, a ​​lumpectomy and alternative medicine, she was cancer-free.

In July 2023, she revealed that her breast cancer had returned, writing in part on Instagram, “This is not new territory for me. I know how to put on my battle gear and I’m a fighter.”

In October of that year, the actress died, one day before her 77th birthday.

Miranda McKeon

Age at diagnosis: 19

The Anne with an E star was “one in a million” when she was diagnosed as a teen in the summer of 2021.

After finding a lump while adjusting her shirt, “I had the thought that, ‘Wow, this is the moment.’ I immediately went to the worst case scenario,” she told PEOPLE. “This is the moment where everything changes and there’s no going back. But after going down a little Google rabbit hole, my mind was at ease because I didn’t think anything could be wrong because of my age.”

Immediately immersed into treatments and appointments for stage 3 cancer that was in her lymph nodes, “My doctor was like, ‘Your stage doesn’t define you. And your cancer is your cancer.’ Which I appreciate because when you hear someone’s stage, your mind goes straight to one place or another and I don’t think that’s necessarily representative of what I’m going through.”

She spoke to PEOPLE in 2024 about life after remission, saying that though she has days where she doesn’t think about the cancer, it still has “changed the way I live.”

The actress keeps fans updated via her blog (including a look into how she was feeling post-breast reconstruction surgery in 2022) and says she sees the silver lining in that connection.

“The one thing that is super tangible that has come out of this where I’m like, ‘Damn, this is awesome,’ ” she said. “I’m hoping that by documenting a good majority of this, that someone else will be able to read it down the line when they need it and they can find comfort and healing through it in the way that I do writing it.”

Shannen Doherty

Ages at diagnosis: 44 and 48

The actress revealed to PEOPLE in August 2015 that she was battling breast cancer; it went into remission, but in February 2020 she revealed that it had returned as a Stage 4 metastatic cancer that had spread to her spine.

Despite the news of her terminal illness, Doherty maintained an active life, and was determined to make the most of whatever time she had left.

“People just assume that it means you can’t walk, you can’t eat, you can’t work. They put you out to pasture at a very early age — ‘You’re done, you’re retired,’ and we’re not,” she told PEOPLE in 2023. “We’re vibrant, and we have such a different outlook on life. We are people who want to work, embrace life and keep moving forward.”

Doherty died at age 53 in July 2024. Following news of her death, friends recalled her determination to inspire others despite her difficult diagnosis.

“You really have to dig deep to face cancer, and in that you find all the stuff that you had hidden away,” she said in 2021. “And it’s beautiful things that you find. You find the vulnerability, you find your trust in people again, you find forgiveness.”

Olivia Newton-John

Ages at diagnosis: 44, 64 and 68

Following a 1992 cancer diagnosis in her right breast, the Grease star underwent a modified radical mastectomy and a year of chemotherapy, herbs, acupuncture and mental imaging to cope with the nausea.

“I visualized [the chemicals] as gold liquid going into my body, healing me, rather than what it really is, which is poison,” she told PEOPLE in 2000. “So, okay, I didn’t die. I was stronger than I thought.” Afterward, the breast cancer advocate released a 2005 album, Stronger than Before, dedicated to “going through difficulty and getting through it,” she revealed on Good Morning America at the time.

In May 2017, she announced she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time, and that the cancer had metastasized and spread to her bones. She later revealed that she had secretly faced the disease for a second time in private back in 2013.

She died in 2022 at the age of 73, but shared her story and raised awareness and funds right up until the end.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Age at diagnosis: 56

One day after the 2017 Emmy Awards, the Veep star was diagnosed with breast cancer. “1 in 8 women get breast cancer. Today, I’m the one,” the actress wrote on a photo posted to Twitter about 10 days later.

She completed her cancer treatment in early 2018, and returned to work filming Veep. Speaking to PEOPLE in September 2018, the actress said, “I’m feeling good and feeling quite ready and delighted to focus on funny things as opposed to things that aren’t quite so funny.”

She also told PEOPLE she plans to be an advocate for women’s health going forward, and in 2023 said that she tries to reduce stress in her life, instead focusing on “trying to enjoy my life as much as possible.”

Sandra Lee

Age at diagnosis: 48

Lee was leaving a photoshoot for PEOPLE’s Most Beautiful issue in March 2015 when she received the devastating news. She revealed her breast cancer diagnosis in an emotional Good Morning America interview just two months later.

Following a lumpectomy, which Lee had already received at the time of her GMA appearance, the TV chef said she had two options: she could get a mastectomy, or she would have to endure six to eight weeks of daily radiation treatments. “Both the radiologist and the doctor said, ‘You’re a ticking time bomb,'” the Food Network star recalled of her decision to undergo a double mastectomy.

At the time of Lee’s diagnosis, the medical community suggested women could wait until 50 to start getting regular mammograms. The Emmy-winning chef, whose cancer was caught in the early stages, urges others to follow her and start screening early. “If I would’ve waited, I probably wouldn’t even be sitting here,” she told GMA anchor Robin Roberts, who was diagnosed with breast cancer as well, at age 46.

In 2022, Lee shared with fans that she had undergone a hysterectomy after doctors noticed some concerning results at a check-up. “After that, there won’t be any more halo of worry hanging over my head,” she explained.

Hoda Kotb

Age at diagnosis: 42

After discovering a lump in her breast, the Today anchor underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery in March 2007, which she now credits with helping her better her life.

“Staring down the scariest thing that could have happened to me gave me the strength to take on new challenges,” she said in 2008 on Today, which provided a platform to document her cancer journey. “When I got back to work, one of the first things I did was walk into my bosses’ offices … to tell them I wanted to be Today‘s fourth-hour co-host. Before cancer, I don’t think I had the confidence to fight for the position, but now here I am, living my dream job.”

In 2025 Kotb opened up to PEOPLE about how her diagnosis is still “part of” her 20 years later.

“When it comes to breast cancer, it’s sort of like, get it early, get it out, and try not to be defined by it,” she told PEOPLE at the Runway for Recovery event. “It can shape you, but if it defines you, then you will spend your life feeling a certain way. So it’s like understanding this is part of me, but not all of me. It’s going to change me and I’ll be different now.” 

Kristen Dahlgren

Age at diagnosis: 47

In 2016, NBC News correspondent Dahlgren reported a story on lesser-known signs of breast cancer (including dimpling, “dents” or redness) — then three years later, spotted one in herself. It turned out to be Stage 2 breast cancer.

“I remember thinking at the time, this story is going to save lives. And I just had no idea that the life it would save would be mine,” she said. “My thinking is, if that story saved my life, then maybe it can save someone else’s. And if someone sees this and notices a change in their breast and goes and gets it checked out, if one person is saved by that, then that makes it worth it to share my struggle.”

Following her treatment, which included chemotherapy, radiation and a double mastectomy, she and her family moved from New York City to Vermont for a change of pace. She later launched the Cancer Vaccine Coalition after learning about the variety of vaccines targeting different types of cancers that are in phase 2 clinical trials.

She left the Today show in 2024 and has been devoting her time to these efforts ever since.

Mathew Knowles

Age at diagnosis: 67

The music producer and father to Beyoncé and Solange Knowles decided to see a doctor after noticing tiny spots of blood on his shirt and bedsheets. He discovered that he was one of the few men to be diagnosed with breast cancer (about 1 percent of the 270,000 annual diagnoses in America).

After successful treatment, he discovered that he has the BRCA gene, which can mutate and lead to cancer. He now encourages people (including his daughters) to learn more about their risk factors and whether genetic testing is right for them. And he’s focused on educating people about men’s risk of the cancer, which is often detected later (and thus can be more fatal) due to lack of awareness.

“A whole lot has to change in the education of men about breast cancer,” he says, adding that Black men are diagnosed with breast cancer at a 52 percent higher rate than white men. “I want to save lives, especially in the Black community,”

Mandy Gonzalez

Age at diagnosis: 40

When offered the option to get a mammogram during her regular check-up, the Hamilton star said yes (“because breast cancer tends to impact Latina women at a younger age than the general population”) – and after a second scan, she was officially diagnosed.

“Everything happened very fast, I was very fortunate that they were able to catch it early,” Gonzalez told PEOPLE in January 2020. “It’s important for women to know that early detection is key. As a community, as a society, we need to figure out a way so that everyone has access to a mammogram.”

She continued to perform as Angelica Schuyler in the hit Broadway musical while undergoing treatment, saying that singing was a source of strength for her. And in July 2020, she got to ring the bell indicating her cancer-free status.

She continued to raise awareness about early detection (telling PEOPLE that the support of the breast cancer community online was immensely helpful during her treatment) and sees the positive in her journey. “I’ve come to see that sharing and exposing vulnerability is a sign of strength, not weakness,” she told PEOPLE. “Yes, I have breast cancer. But it does not define me. I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, an actress, a squad leader. None of that changes.”

Christina Applegate

Age at diagnosis: 36

After watching her mother have cancer twice, Applegate was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2008 and underwent a double mastectomy, even though cancer was detected in only one of her breasts.

Years later, Applegate reflected on her journey with cancer in an interview with Dax Shepard on an episode of Armchair Expert and explained why she regretted not being more honest about her experience at the time.

“I learned that lesson the hard way because in 2008, when I had breast cancer at 36 years old, I went out, and I was the good girl talking about ‘Oh, I love my new boobs’ that are all scarred and f—ed up. What was I thinking?” she remembered, recalling an interview she did with Robin Roberts at the time.

“Everything I was saying was a freaking lie. It was me trying to convince myself of something, and I think that did no service to anyone,” she said. “Yes, I started a foundation right away. Yes, I did all the things that I had to do, and we raised millions of dollars for women to get MRIs who were at high risk. Yes, we did a good thing, but at the back of it, I was taking off my bra and crying every night. And I wish that I had said that.”

Edie Falco

Age at diagnosis: 39

The ultra-private star only informed family, a few close friends and her bosses at HBO when she was diagnosed with an aggressive strain of breast cancer in 2003. “I don’t respond well to the sympathy thing,” she told PEOPLE in 2009, explaining that she filmed The Sopranos around her chemo appointments and donned an identical wig on the show. “We were shooting crazy hours, so I still looked better than everybody else,” she joked.

Lesley Murphy

Age at high-risk diagnosis: 29

Bachelor and Bachelor Winter Games alum Murphy found out she tested positive for the BRCA 2 gene mutation, which greatly increases her chance of developing breast cancer. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, so Murphy — who placed fifth on Sean Lowe’s season of The Bachelor — chose to get ahead of her diagnosis and have a preventative double mastectomy in April 2017.

“I was just kind of like, You know, I don’t really want to be sitting on these potentially cancerous cells. Like, why hang on to something that is a ticking time bomb?” Murphy told PEOPLE of the initial conversation with her doctor. Of fans’ support, she said, “It’s nice to share in commiserating or laughing with all these people who have come out to support me: complete strangers. I’m just scrolling through comments the other day and broke down crying because I just was overwhelmed with emotion and the goodness in humanity.”

Maura Tierney

Age at diagnosis: 44

“I remember thinking, ‘I’m so young. This can’t be happening,'” Tierney told PEOPLE in July 2012, about three years after finding out she had breast cancer in 2009. The diagnosis meant she had to drop out of the NBC show Parenthood, but ultimately, it allowed her to focus on what’s important. “I think I always kind of lived in the moment,” she said. “But I spend a lot more time with my family now – that’s one solid difference.”

Jessica St. Clair

Age at diagnosis: 38

The Playing House star was serving her then-2-year-old daughter breakfast in 2015 when she realized something wasn’t right. Days later, she was diagnosed with stage 2B estrogen positive cancer. “I remember thinking, ‘I will do anything and everything I need to do to stay alive for my daughter and make sure this has the least amount of impact on her life’,” she recalled to PEOPLE.

After intense chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, she’s cancer-free, and event used her journey as inspiration for a season of Playing House. “I knew we were going to have to tell the story, because [costar Lennon Parham] and I always write about what we’re going through in real life,” she said. “There are a lot of young moms going through this and I want them to know, ‘Hey, I can do this too!’ ”

Rita Wilson

Age at diagnosis: 58

The actress and singer had been living with and monitoring LCIS (lobular carcinoma in situ) with yearly mammograms and breast MRIs when an abnormality was noticed and tested. Though cancer wasn’t initially detected, a friend urged Wilson to get a second opinion – at which time she found out she did in fact have breast cancer, and in April 2015, she told PEOPLE she’d had a bilateral mastectomy. “I share this to educate others that a second opinion is critical to your health,” she said. “You have nothing to lose if both opinions match up for the good, and everything to gain if something that was missed was found. I hope this will encourage others to get a second opinion and trust their instincts if something doesn’t ‘feel’ right.”

In 2017, Wilson penned an article in Harper’s Bazaar that talked about the aftermath of having breast cancer. “We often assume that once you have had the surgery and treatment, you are fine,” Wilson writes. “And hopefully you are. But I found that there were unexpected things that came along with having gone through something as frightening as having had cancer that I only heard about from my friends who’d had cancer too.”

In April 2025, Wilson celebrated being cancer-free for 10 years with a video shared to Instagram.

“I’m so thankful to my doctors. To my friends, to my family. The gratitude is overwhelming,” she said. “Didn’t always feel this way. And you know that, anybody who’s going through [it, or] who’s survived knows that it’s an up and down, like, hamster wheel. But then you get to this point.”

Kathy Bates

Age at diagnosis: 55

Bates was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003, and then breast cancer in 2012. She decided to have a double mastectomy because of her family history with cancer. “My aunt had died from it, my mother had it, my niece had it,” she told PEOPLE. She tested negative for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutation that increases a woman’s risk of breast and ovarian cancer. A negative BRCA result is “not a get out of jail free card,” she said.

Bates’ then also developed lymphedema after her lymph nodes were removed during her mastectomy surgery.

“I was bitter, I was depressed,” she told SurvivorNet in a 2019 of her reaction to learning about the lymphedema. “I thought my career was over, I thought, ‘There’s no way, I’m done, everything is done.’ ”

In 2022, Bates told NIH MedlinePlus Magazine that her lymphedema is “under control” after losing 80 pounds and undergoing treatment.

Giuliana Rancic

Age at diagnosis: 37

“The second I heard ‘cancer,’ I just remember my head went down, the ground went away, and I just dropped through the earth, and I was just dropping, falling,” the E! host recalled on her reality show after learning she had breast cancer during a 2011 mammogram while undergoing a round of in vitro fertilization. But Rancic, who underwent a double lumpectomy and a double mastectomy to treat the cancer, marked a very special milestone just months later: her first Mother’s Day with son Edward Duke.

“The key for me is getting out there and encouraging women to find it early,” she told PEOPLE. “More women find their breast cancer themselves than at the doctor or mammogram. I have women all the time who say, ‘I found my breast cancer early because of you and I’m going to be okay.'”

Sheryl Crow

Age at diagnosis: 44

Just weeks after calling off her engagement to Lance Armstrong, the singer was diagnosed with an early stage of breast cancer in February 2006, later undergoing a lumpectomy and radiation treatment. Rather than feel bad on her difficult year, Crow said it was a positive for her: “It brought me to this point where I am now, and I really feel like I have a lot of clarity.”

She went on to be a huge advocate for early screening, and in 2020, spoke out to encourage women to get mammograms rather than put them off in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m encouraging women to not let that yearly appointment go by because it can mean a huge difference in the kind of diagnosis you receive, if you are diagnosed with breast cancer,” she told PEOPLE in September. “We have a cure — early detection — and it’s our greatest weapon.”

Lisa Vidal

Age at diagnosis: Unknown

On a November 2016 episode of The Real, the Being Mary Jane actress talked about her diagnosis of invasive ductal carcinoma, found not by a mammogram, but an ultrasound. “A mammogram is like a snow storm and you’re trying to find a snowflake,” she said. “You don’t see it until it’s much worse and so that’s why I really, kind of, want to advocate for women to get ultrasounds and early detection. The good thing was that it was treatable.”

Melissa Etheridge

Age at diagnosis: 43

When the singer took the stage at the 2005 Grammy Awards with a show-stopping rendition of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart,” she famously performed bald — a reminder of her October 2004 breast cancer diagnosis. “I’m feeling great,” she proclaimed to PEOPLE. Years later, performing 10,000 feet up in the air for a 2009 Breast Cancer Research Foundation benefit, Etheridge said, “My health is better now than it’s ever been. Cancer woke me up.”

Mindy Cohn

Age at diagnosis: 46

After being diagnosed in 2012, the Facts of Life star says “I kept that secret for a long time.”

 “I’ve always been an optimist,” she told PEOPLE. “But the cancer metastasized. It kept spreading and coming back. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then it would. And then I’d wait for another shoe to drop, and it would. I was frustrated and enraged. I couldn’t control any of this. I couldn’t fix it.”

She stepped away from her work in Hollywood and ultimately underwent a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. Eventually, she turned to her friends to help her through.

“I have so many friends who supported me during the siege,” she told PEOPLE of the five-year ordeal. “They’re people who I consider my family by choice. They were always there for me.”

Kylie Minogue

Age at diagnosis: 36

After an initial misdiagnosis, the Australian pop star postponed her Showgirl tour to undergo treatment for breast cancer in 2005. “When you are stripped of everything and you have to grow your eyelashes back, grow your hair back, it’s just astonishing,” Minogue later opened up in the November 2007 issue of British Glamour. “It’s hard to express what I’ve learned from that, but a deep psychological and emotional shift has obviously taken place.”

She underwent a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and was declared cancer-free in February 2006. In 2023, Minogue opened up about how she continues to grapple with her diagnosis 20 years later.

“It’s trauma, and any trauma resides within you,” she told CBS News. “The experience of a cancer diagnosis will live in me. It was difficult. It was also amazing.”

Cynthia Nixon

Age at diagnosis: 40

Six years before the And Just Like That… star shaved her head to portray a cancer patient in Broadway’s 2012 production of Wit, Nixon was diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram, which she revealed 18 months later when she became an official ambassador for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. “I felt scared,” the mother of three told ABC at the time. “And I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t want this to be happening.’ I was very cognizant of if it’s going to happen, this is the best way for it to happen – that it’s found so early, and we can just get right on it.”

Amy Foster

Age at diagnosis: 45

The daughter of producer David Foster and author of Rift Coda shared a photo of herself getting an MRI to announce that she had been diagnosed with the disease in 2019.

In addition to the picture, Foster further destigmatized the treatment by saying, “if you are a lady out there and you feel something in your boob — go get a mammogram. KNOWING IS BETTER…even if it’s the worst news you can hear.” She wrote that in her case, early detection meant she would need a mastectomy but not chemotherapy.

She had a mastectomy and went on to take the “pill form of chemo” daily in 2020, she told PEOPLE that July amid the COVID19 pandemic.