Gwyneth Paltrow's mother, Blythe Danner, has broken her silence on a yearslong battle with oral cancer — the same disease that killed her husband Bruce Paltrow in 2002.
The 79-year-old Emmy-winning actress, known for her roles in "Meet the Parents" and "Will & Grace," opened up about overcoming adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare form of oral cancer that often develops in the salivary glands, in an interview with People.
"Everyone is touched by cancer in some way, but it's unusual for a couple to have the same cancer," she said.
Danner was diagnosed in March 2018. She was working in London at the time and began "feeling very woozy" and was "forgetting everything."
"And then I felt a lump in my neck, right next to where Bruce had found his [in 1999]," she explained.
"I remember I looked up at heaven and said to Bruce, 'Are you lonely up there?' " she recalled after receiving the diagnosis. "It's a sneaky disease. But I'm fine and dandy now. And I'm lucky to be alive."
Danner chose to keep the news private while having two surgeries and exploring alternative treatments for several years. She then underwent a third surgery with Dr. Mark DeLacure in 2020, which succeeded in removing the cancerous tissue.
Throughout her treatment, which included radiation and chemotherapy, Danner said she did not experience any fear surrounding death and believed this was linked to losing Bruce, who she had been married to for 33 years.
"You never get over that kind of loss," she explained. "Bruce was the heart of our family. And life is so much paler without him around. But grief is the price we pay for love."
Reflecting on her husband's death, and her own battle with cancer, Danner added it had built resiliency in her.
"I think we've all become somehow stronger. It's a bit of a crapshoot — this disease and this life," she said. "But I've had a career, great kids, and a loving husband. I'm very grateful."