Suzanne Somers candidly opened up about the recurrence of her breast cancer. The Three’s Company actress put on her ”battle gear” as she prepared to fight the disease again — more than two decades after she was first diagnosed.
When Was Suzanne Somers Diagnosed With Breast Cancer?
In the early 2000s, when Suzanne was in her early 50s, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I never thought I’d ever hear someone say to me, ‘You have breast cancer,’” she said in an interview with Larry King in 2002.
After a lumpectomy and radiation, Suzanne chose not to undergo chemotherapy. Instead, she opted to try alternative medicine.
“My cancer has become a veiled gift,” she said in 2018. “Because when confronted with standard of care — the standard treatment protocol for cancer [being] radiation, chemotherapy and after-care drugs — I looked at the doctor and I said, ‘I can’t do this.’ And he said, ‘But you’ll die.’ And I said, ‘I honestly believe I will die if I do what you tell me. The idea of flooding my body with chemical poison just doesn’t reckon with who I am.”
Suzanne revealed that she switched up her diet and made lifestyle changes to improve her quality of life.
“I eat buttercream, sour cream, cream cheese, all organic, no hormones. I sleep eight hours a night and I don’t take any drugs,” she said after beating breast cancer the first time. “I am in optimal life. I don’t even worry about cancer. It’s never coming back.”
Prior to that, the Step by Step actress battled hyperplasia in her 20s and melanoma in her 30s.
When Did Suzanne Somers’ Breast Cancer Return?
In an Instagram post shared on Monday, July 31, Suzanne publicly revealed she fought breast cancer again, leading her to take time off from work.
“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.”
On June 6, Suzanne received an all-clear from her doctors and was deemed cancer-free. The Dancing With the Stars alum thanked her husband, Alan Hamel, for being by her side every step of the way.
“I can’t even explain how much he has done for me,” Suzanne continued. “If it’s even possible, we are even closer than ever. My incredible family has been so supportive and have helped so much by keeping the business running so you can still have access to all the wonderful products.”
Alan also supported his wife through a devastating injury she sustained in 2020 after falling in her home.
“I broke my whole right side — my neck, spine, hip, pelvis and knee,” she told Closer in April 2023. “And it’s been over a year of pain and recovery. I’m not all the way back yet, but I’m going to be OK.”
