21 Celebrities With Breast Cancer

In March of 2024, actress Olivia Munn, 43, known for her roles in Attack of the Show!, Newsroom, Magic Mike, and Iron Man 2, announced that she’d been diagnosed with aggressive luminal B breast cancer and had undergone a double mastectomy. Munn’s public announcement on Instagram was made with the intent of sharing an important public health message: It was a breast cancer risk assessment screening tool — a multipart questionnaire administered by her doctor — that prompted her diagnosis, not a mammogram. In fact, her mammogram and a genetic screening test for high-risk breast cancer genes had come back negative. When Munn’s risk assessment came back high, her doctor (“my guardian angel”) ordered the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that caught her cancer, says Munn.

She has since revealed during an interview with Vogue that she also underwent a hysterectomy, an oophorectomy (ovary removal), and an egg retrieval procedure. She said her family was the “driving force.” Her announcement raised awareness about a tool many women did not know existed.

It’s been nearly nine years since actress Shannen Doherty, 53, best known for her roles on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed, confirmed to People magazine in August 2015 that she was being treated for breast cancer.

The news of Doherty’s cancer first surfaced when TMZ reported that Doherty was suing her former business manager for failing to pay her health insurance premiums, causing her coverage to lapse and resulting in the cancer being detected at a later stage than it would have been otherwise. She went on to confirm the diagnosis to People that same month.

Though Doherty stated on Instagram in April 2017 that she was in remission after surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, by February 2020 the breast cancer had recurred and reached stage 4 (metastasized). In 2023, she announced the cancer had spread to her brain and bones.

Doherty opened up about facing metastatic breast cancer, her treatments, and the progression of her disease in her Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty podcast, to which she invited her doctors to discuss her treatments. She openly shared her thoughts and experiences through her cancer journey on the podcast, including her brain surgery to remove the tumor she had named “Bob.” Other podcast episodes focused on “downsizing,” and embracing what is precious. She also shared videos on her Instagram account of getting a mask fitted for radiation therapy, and then receiving radiation therapy.

Doherty hoped that sharing her story would inspire others fighting cancer. “If I could help one person then it makes me go, ‘Oh, okay.’ It's easier to live with having cancer if I know I'm helping at least one person,” she said in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Tonight. She died on July 13, 2024, five days after posting her final podcast episode.

In October of 2019, Mathew Knowles, father of celebrity singers Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, announced that he had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and since then he has been sharing his story and spreading awareness about male breast cancer and the importance of self-care.

In a May 2024 Instagram post, Knowles, 72, said: “Over the last five years I’ve experienced COVID, cancer, and two knee replacements. I’m grateful that I found my male breast cancer at stage one. My major takeaway from the last five years has been self-care.”

Knowles initially suspected something was wrong after noticing a series of dots of blood on his shirt, he told Michael Strahan in an interview on Good Morning America. His doctor recommended a mammogram, which confirmed that he had breast cancer.

Knowles has since learned that he carries the BRCA2 gene mutation, which escalates risk for breast cancer as well as prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, melanoma, and ovarian cancer. Knowles says that there is a long history of breast cancer in his family.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, of Seinfeld and Veep fame, first announced her breast cancer diagnosis in 2017, and today she is still spreading awareness and reflecting on her experiences. In a June 2024 Today Show interview, the 63-year-old Louis-Dreyfus said: “When you’re younger, there’s kind of this arrogance of youth. … You do feel immortal,” she said. “And then all of a sudden, you’re bumped up against that, and you’re like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, this at some point it’s going to end. What?’ You know, you don’t go through life thinking about that very much, so it puts into sharp focus priorities.”

On September 28, 2017, Louis-Dreyfus used Twitter to announce that she had breast cancer. “One in 8 women get breast cancer,” the Emmy Award–winning actress wrote. “Today, I’m the one.”

Louis-Dreyfus struck a positive note with her message — and used the opportunity to make a plug for more extensive healthcare coverage for all. “The good news is that I have the most glorious group of supportive and caring family and friends, and fantastic insurance through my union,” she wrote. “The bad news is that not all women are so lucky, so let’s fight all cancers and make universal healthcare a reality.”

Speaking to Vanity Fair in August 2019, Louis-Dreyfus revealed she had undergone six rounds of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, after which she returned to film the final season of Veep, which earned her a seventh Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Journalist and former Good Morning America cohost Joan Lunden considers her breast cancer diagnosis a gift — and by chronicling her breast cancer journey publicly over the years, she’s creating a proud legacy.

In a March 2024 Today Show interview, Lunden, 72, recalled her mindset in the wake of her diagnosis after deciding to bring the public along on her journey. “In that moment, I changed myself from a victim into an advocate … and that made that cancer battle so much easier to go through.” And now, she says, her social media followers tell her, “You took the scary out of it for me.”

Lunden’s cancer journey started when she had her annual mammogram in early June 2014, and the result was negative. She also had her usual follow-up ultrasound because her breasts have dense, fibrous tissue. This time, however, a tumor was identified in her right breast, which a core biopsy later confirmed to be cancer.

“I sat there stunned — how could this be?” Lunden shared in her blog. “I considered myself fit and healthy, I get checked faithfully every year, and I didn’t have a history of breast cancer in my family.”

She took immediate action and underwent chemotherapy followed by a lumpectomy and radiation. At the same time, Lunden, whose father was a cancer surgeon, is using her experience to raise awareness about the importance of breast cancer screenings, breast self-exams, and early detection.

“I know I have a challenge ahead of me in this journey, however I have chosen to take it as an opportunity to fulfill my father’s legacy and try to inspire others to protect their health,” she wrote in her blog.

Giuliana Rancic, television personality, entrepreneur, and author, has more than a decade of breast cancer survivorship under her belt, and she continues to advocate for fellow patients and survivors. In a December 2023 interview with Cure, Rancic, 49 at the time, discussed her advocacy work.

“A lot of people don’t realize that, if caught early, breast cancer has one of the highest survival rates of any cancer, but the key is to catch it early. That’s why my mission is to get the word out about early detection,” she said.

The former E! News host and star of E!’s Giuliana & Bill show revealed she had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in October 2011. Then 36, Rancic had gotten a mammogram before receiving another round of IVF treatment for infertility when her doctor discovered the tumor. In December 2011, she underwent a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Rancic refused to let her diagnosis get in the way of having children. She and her husband had a son via a surrogate in August 2012. She also launched Fab-U-Wish, an initiative that grants fashion, beauty, and celebrity-themed wishes to women undergoing treatment for breast cancer, which she now operates in partnership with the nonprofit organization The Pink Agenda.

Andrea Mitchell, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent and anchor of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, was diagnosed with breast cancer in August of 2011 after a routine mammogram and has been an advocate for early detection and breast cancer screening ever since. In 2020, the veteran journalist received the Pink Ribbon Award for her breast cancer advocacy efforts.

Mitchell’s health diagnosis first became public in September 2011 when she took to the airwaves to reveal it on NBC News. "We discovered it in the earliest stage, it hadn’t spread, and I’m already back at work with a terrific prognosis,” she told viewers. Mitchell, who was 64 at the time of her diagnosis, also encouraged women to go for their annual screenings. “Do it,” she said. “This disease can be completely curable if you find it at the right time.”

In an article published in October 2023 on SurvivorNet, Mitchell recalled that she once delayed breast reconstruction surgery following her mastectomy so she could continue covering the 2012 presidential campaign.

But, she said, her breast cancer experience taught her a life lesson in the importance of early detection.

Comedian Wanda Sykes discovered she had stage 0 breast cancer during a follow-up to her breast reduction surgery in 2011. Since she had a history of cancer on her mother’s side of the family, the then 47-year-old Sykes decided to have a preventive double mastectomy. “I had both breasts removed because now I have zero chance of having breast cancer,” she explained on The Ellen Degeneres Show.

In February 2024, Sykes was honored in a Black History Month article published on LinkedIn by Dr. Michelle D. Clark.

Clark noted that Sykes approached her diagnosis “with her trademark humor and resilience, using laughter as a form of healing and empowerment.”

“Her willingness to share her story has empowered others to face their own challenges with courage and optimism,” Clark wrote.

It’s been 20 years since Grammy Award–winning singer Melissa Etheridge first discovered a lump in her breast while touring. She not only beat breast cancer, she also wrote a song dedicated to breast cancer survivors titled “I Run for Life.” She donated all of the royalties from the song to breast cancer charities. Etheridge says that after her diagnosis with stage 2 breast cancer in 2004, she had a lumpectomy, had 15 lymph nodes removed, and underwent five rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.

Today, Etheridge, 63, says her breast cancer diagnosis was the best thing that could have happened to her. “The effect it had on me, I changed. My writing, my outlook on life and what life is, what is joy and what is happiness and what brings me happiness,” Etheridge said in an interview published October 2023 on SurvivorNet.

In 2003, actress Edie Falco was midway through filming a season of The Sopranos when she learned she had stage 1 breast cancer. She plowed through an emotional scene the day she received her diagnosis and continued working as she went through treatment in the months ahead.

Rather than going public with the news like some celebrities, Falco chose a more private route for dealing with her diagnosis and treatment, telling loved ones and a select few on set. “I dealt with this on my own, with my friends and my family, which is what worked for me,” she said in an article on SurvivorNet.

Speaking to Health magazine in 2011, Falco related that the breast cancer diagnosis initially left her gasping for breath — until she realized she was a strong woman and had the resources to fight it. Nowadays the actress, also known for Nurse Jackie and a multitude of other roles, is enjoying a flourishing career and busy raising two children.

While the majority of breast cancer occurs in women, men can get it, too. In 2009, Peter Criss of the rock group KISS told CNN that he felt like “the luckiest man on the planet” after surviving the breast cancer he first noticed as a lump in his left breast two years earlier. Since then he has continued to make music and has published his autobiography.

He’s also used his fame to bust stereotypes surrounding male breast cancer and has received numerous awards for his advocacy work, according to an interview published in October 2023 on SurvivorNet. “I just want men to know that they can get it, and they should go immediately. Early detection saved my life, and it can save your life,” Criss said.

Actress and entrepreneur Suzanne Somers, best known for her roles on Three’s Company and other sitcoms, survived breast cancer for 23 years before she died of the disease on October 15, 2023, one day shy of her 77th birthday, according to The New York Times.

“When I was diagnosed with cancer I was shocked,” she says. “I never smoked. I never drank to excess. I ate right. And I didn’t abuse pharmaceuticals. I had done the work! But I learned that we’re all at risk for cancer.”

Somers was first diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer after a routine mammogram in 2000. She underwent a lumpectomy and radiation therapy and sought and received alternative therapies.

In July 2023, Somers posted on Instagram that her breast cancer had returned.

“As you know, I had breast cancer two decades ago, and every now and then it pops up again, and I continue to bat it down,” she wrote. “I have used the best alternative and conventional treatments to combat it. This is not new territory for me. I know how to put on my battle gear and I’m a fighter.”

Actress Christina Applegate, 52, has had more than her share of serious health battles — most recently multiple sclerosis (MS), with which she was diagnosed in 2021 while working on the third season of Netflix’s Dead to Me, as she posted on X. 

But before the MS, Applegate shared another health journey that started in April 2008 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. At age 36, Applegate first underwent a lumpectomy, but after learning that she had the BRCA1 genetic mutation (a gene associated with an increased risk of both breast and ovarian cancer), she opted for a double mastectomy followed by the removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes.

On Dead to Me, Applegate played a character who underwent a preventative double mastectomy due to the BRCA1 gene. Speaking to TheWrap in August 2019, the actress noted that her time on the show was “cathartic for me, to be able to go there and open up those doors again and examine that loss and pain that I’ve had to deal with in my life.” The role seems to suit her well: It earned her a fifth Emmy nomination, this one for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Sheryl Crow may be best known for her music, but she has used her celebrity status as a breast cancer survivor to also help raise awareness about the importance of early detection. In 2006, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a lumpectomy and radiation treatment. According to questions she answered on CNN.com in 2006, Crow had no signs or symptoms, but her cancer was detected via her yearly screening mammogram. She encourages all women, especially those with dense breasts like herself, not to skip this important exam. In an October 2017 article in People, Crow entreated women to get beyond “pink fatigue” and take the time to schedule a mammogram.

Like many celebrities, actress Cynthia Nixon of Sex and the City fame chose not to reveal her breast cancer diagnosis until after going through treatment. Diagnosed in 2006, according to ABC News, she had a lumpectomy and then six-and-a-half weeks of radiation therapy.

Nixon, whose mother is also a breast cancer survivor, stated that knowing her personal risk “made me more aware and more empowered when I faced my own diagnosis.” She also joined the Susan G. Komen organization to help educate women around the world about breast cancer.

Singer Olivia Newton-John battled breast cancer for 30 years before losing her life to the disease at age 73 on August 8, 2022. In an Instagram post at the time, her husband John Easterling wrote, “Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer.”

Newton-John was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 after a self-examination, which led her to her doctor for further testing. “I wasn’t feeling right, and I had found lumps before, but this time it just felt different.” Even after a mammogram and needle biopsy came out negative, “my instincts were telling me that something wasn’t right,” she recalls. “After a surgical biopsy, they found the cancer.”

“I don’t tell the story to scare people,” she said, “but to really stress the importance of knowing your own body and trusting your instincts. This is the very reason I am now such a big supporter of monthly breast self-exams.” She’s also a supporter of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia, which conducts research into various forms of cancer and provides treatment for those living with the disease.

After the cancer returned in 2013, Newton-John received hormone treatment that sent it into remission again, but it metastasized to her bones in 2017. She embraced an integrative approach, using complementary treatments like CBD tinctures along with conventional approaches like radiation and hormone therapies.

Many breast cancer survivors take up the cause, and musician Carly Simon is no exception. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997 and undergoing treatment including chemotherapy, she said she hoped for more research into the disease. As Simon told CNN, “There’s a feeling that if this had been a man’s disease, it would have been licked already.”

Now 80, Simon encourages others to get more than one expert opinion before making major medical decisions. She believes a second opinion may have saved her life, according to an article on SurvivorNet.

In an article published in October 2022 in People, Simon mourned the passing of both of her older sisters, who died of cancer one day apart (one died of metastatic breast cancer).

Actress Jaclyn Smith’s breast cancer was found through her yearly mammogram and led to a lumpectomy and radiation in 2002. In a 2019 article describing her cancer journey, Smith emphasized the importance of breast cancer patients educating themselves, stating: “Knowledge is power. Without it we’re lost.”

Another piece of advice she shared on CNN is to not go it alone. Although her husband, a doctor himself, was a great source of strength and support, Smith noted, “One of the most important things you can do is remember the power of girlfriends. … Girlfriends saved my day.” Because she feels she was given so much during her cancer journey, she prioritizes giving back in the form of breast cancer advocacy.

Actress Rita Wilson told People in April 2015 that she had had a double mastectomy following a diagnosis of invasive lobular carcinoma. Wilson, who is married to actor Tom Hanks, had been monitored for lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) for some time.

However, as she told The New York Times, when an early test came back negative — but something still did not feel right to her — she demanded a second opinion. Only then was the cancer discovered. Wilson did not need chemotherapy or radiation following her mastectomies, and she subsequently had reconstructive surgery.

Celebrity chef Sandra Lee announced in May 2015 that she had been diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) at age 48 following a routine screening mammogram. She initially had a lumpectomy to treat it, but, as Lee told Good Morning America coanchor Robin Roberts in an interview, “When the lumpectomy was done, they did not have clean margins.” Lee reported being told she was “a ticking time bomb,” and she was advised to have a double mastectomy, which she did.

The former longtime partner of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, Lee spoke out strongly in favor of starting screening mammograms early — in a woman’s twenties or thirties — and not waiting until age 50, as was recommended for most women by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) at that time. “If I would have waited,” she said, “I probably wouldn’t even be sitting here.” (Note: The USPSTF now recommends that all women get screened every other year starting at age 40.)

Lee experienced complications following her mastectomies and required a second surgery to treat an infection.

Former supermodel and reality TV star Dickinson revealed to the Daily Mail in March 2016 that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer after a doctor detected a pea-size lump in her right breast.

A biopsy determined she had early-stage DCIS, a form of breast cancer that starts in the milk ducts.

According to Dickinson, “Initially, when the doctor found the lump it hurt. It became quite painful when you touch it. That’s the point when I knew this is serious.”

In spite of her shock and fear, however, Dickinson said, “I am not gonna let that define me, the fear. I’m going to get through this; I’ll be just fine.”

Dickinson underwent eight weeks of radiation and two lumpectomies, as told to People.

Additional reporting by Ingrid Strauch, Laura McArdle, and Eugenia Yun.