'Chicago Med' Star Marlyne Barrett Reveals Cancer Diagnosis

Marlyne Barrett (Getty Images)

By    |   Friday, 30 September 2022 12:40 PM EDT ET

"Chicago Med" star Marlyne Barrett has reported that she has cancer.

Her narrative is not unlike that of her character, charge nurse Maggie Lockwood, who in scenes back in 2019 battled breast cancer. Fiction became reality in July when doctors discovered a football-sized tumor on Barrett's uterus and left ovary.

"I'm an extremely private person, but I felt a responsibility to tell my story," Barrett told People. "When my character went through breast cancer, I had a sea of people reach out to me through social media. They brought me courage, and so I felt a sense of inevitability to meet their hearts where they met me."

The actor said she hopes that revealing her diagnosis will inspire other people to share their painful and uncomfortable truths. 

"We as human beings are so scared to face the mortality of life, or to even pronounce the word 'cancer,'" Barrett said. "But we have so much more strength inside of us than we think."

Barrett said she first started feeling unwell after a hernia repair in April. She had an accumulation of fluid in her abdomen and started experiencing shortness of breath. Then, on July 18, doctors confirmed that Barrett, who has no family history of cancer, had a mass on her ovary and uterus. 

"The initial experience was a shock, a shock to my womanhood," she said. "I didn't believe them, but when they showed me the CT scan, I went, 'Oh my word.' The first questions were, 'Am I going to live?' I just fell into my husband's arms. It still takes my breath away when I think about it."

Doctors said she would need "aggressive" chemotherapy before an eventual hysterectomy. Barrett said she did not want to accept it initially, but learned that the best thing she could do was "meet it."

"There's no running from it because it's my life," she said. "And eventually you just surrender because it's so much bigger than anything you've ever faced. I found this courage, and I just hunkered down and said, 'I'm going to face this.'"

Barrett is now preparing for her third round of chemotherapy, telling People she's taking it "one day at a time."

"I have a wave of emotion that comes," she said. "But it's OK not to have it all together. You can't tangibly hold onto fear. But I'm holding onto faith."

"I find new strength to carry on every day because of [my children]," she added. Barrett shares 11-month-old twins Joshuah-Jireh and Ahnne-N'Urya with her husband, Gavin Barrett, who is a pastor. 

"I want to see them get married one day. And I will," she said.

 

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"Chicago Med" star actor Marlyne Barrett said she has cancer.
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