Drew Barrymore is opening up about a recent breast cancer scare.
The 50-year-old talk show host shared the details on a recent episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, sitting down with comedian Tig Notaro, who previously fought a breast cancer diagnosis for the candid conversation.
Tig was on the show to speak about an upcoming documentary she produced, Come See Me in the Good Light, which explores poet Andrea Gibson’s journey with terminal cancer. The film, which will premiere on AppleTV+ later this month, inspired Drew to speak on her own recent health scare.
“This is the thing I’ve wanted to risk talking about on this show because I recently had a scare,” began Drew. “I’m completely fine, but I did get a bad mammogram, and I got taken into that room, and then I had an emergency biopsy and I waited for those for five days.”
“You had breast cancer, and you’ve spoken about it humorously, eloquently, fiercely and brilliantly yourself,” Drew continued, before asking Tig, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012: “How did you calm yourself? How did you make peace with it?”
“It cracked me open, completely,” the 54-year-old comedian admitted. “I went from being somebody that held everything to myself … I was going to do it on my own and [said], ‘I’m OK.’”
“Even when I came back from surgery — I had a double mastectomy — and my closest friends were settling in to stay with me, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m fine.’ I couldn’t even lift my arms,” she continued. “They were like, ‘You’re all set, Tig?’ and I was like, ‘Yep, I’m all set. You guys can just head out now.’”
Tig went on to encourage those in similar situations to accept support from loved ones
“What I can’t encourage people enough to do is get over any sort of feeling that you can’t ask for help, or to act like you don’t need anybody, like I was doing,” she said. “It was the greatest gift you can give yourself and the people that love you, because people want to help, people want to do good. It changed my life.”
It’s not the first time Drew has shared personal health insights on her show, with the actress admitting her previous stint in rehab influenced her decision to openly talk about sensitive topics.
“What the institution taught me was that if you sit around and discuss things and you don’t sweep ’em under the carpet, it will get better,” she told Us Weekly earlier this year. “And that’s what the show is — based on that!”
