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Cynthia Nixon
At the age of 13, Cynthia Nixon witnessed her mother go through breast cancer treatment. Because of that experience, the Sex and the City star began regular mammograms at 35 – and five years later a lump was found. Her cancer was caught at stage one and Cynthia underwent a lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy. “When I was diagnosed, my wife, who was not my wife at the time, went into shock about it,” recalls the actor, 57. “She was really scared. I was much less scared because I understood they caught it very early.
It hadn’t metastasised at all. It was in this one, very local, small place.” Cynthia now campaigns for increased awareness and screening.
Angelina Jolie
After her mother died of breast cancer aged 56, Angelina Jolie got tested for the BRCA1 gene. She was a carrier, which meant she had an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. The Lara Croft: Tomb Raider star was just 37 at the time, but she decided to have a double mastectomy. Following the operation, she said of her six children, “They can see my small scars and that’s it. Everything else is just Mummy, the same as she always was. And they know I love them and will do anything to be with them as long as I can.” Angelina, 48, later had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed too.
Sarah, Duchess of York
In the lead-up to the King’s Coronation this year, Sarah, Duchess of York, went for a routine mammogram and was met with some unexpected news – a “shadow” could be seen in the scan of her left breast. Soon after, she underwent an eight-hour mastectomy operation and spent four days in intensive care. The duchess, 64, has since told friends she feels “very lucky to be alive” and has revealed on her podcast Tea Talks that she’s named her reconstructed breast Derek. “He’s very important because he saved my life,” she said. “Poor Eric on the right is feeling rather sad because he’s not as perky as Derek on the left, but, you know, whatever. I’ll get Eric balanced, don’t worry!”
Jennifer Saunders
Beloved British comedian Jennifer Saunders kept quiet when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. The Absolutely Fabulous star, 65, went through chemotherapy in private, not telling fans until the release of her 2013 memoir Bonkers: My Life in Laughs.
“My lowest point came when I lost all my hair, every eyelash, every follicle… I felt like a chemical,” she wrote. Jennifer has been outspoken about how Tamoxifen caused her to “crash” into menopause. “It was quite brutal, especially because no one had warned me,” she says. “I don’t think they quite understand how that mentally affects you. You don’t quite know what you should feel like, so you think, ‘Is this depression? I don’t know. I just feel angry.'”
Kylie Minogue
Loco-Motion hitmaker Kylie Minogue was 36 when she received the news she had breast cancer. Four days later, on May 21, 2005, she underwent surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Kylie likened the treatment to “experiencing a nuclear bomb”, but it worked – a year later she was given the all-clear. “Cancer changed many things forever and then some things did not change at all,” says the Australian pop princess, 55. “My illness made me even more passionate about all the people and all the things I love. But at the same time, life as I had always known it was on hold.” Family, friends and fans got her through. “People shone so bright for me in those dark days.”
Maggie Smith
Dame Maggie Smith was 73 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. “I had been feeling a little rum. I didn’t think it was anything serious because years ago I felt a lump and it was benign. I assumed this would be too,” she shared. Instead, the revered actor was told the tumour needed to be removed and she also needed chemotherapy. “It takes the wind out of your sails,” the star, now 88, confessed. She was in the middle of filming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and despite feeling “horribly sick”, she soldiered on. “I was hairless. I had no problem getting the wig on. I was like a boiled egg!”
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