In a major update on her cancer journey, Baywatch star Nicole Eggert has revealed she recently underwent a single mastectomy.
Eggert, 52, was initially diagnosed with stage 2 cribriform carcinoma breast cancer in December 2023 and has been courageously open about her battle with the disease— with her latest update being no different.
During an appearance on the Amy & T.J podcast, hosted by TV anchors Amy Robach and TJ Holmes, actor and producer Eggert revealed her recent surgery, saying: “I did eight months of treatment. I just had a mastectomy six days ago and I will go back on treatment.”
Nicole Eggert attends the premiere of ABC News Studios docuseries “After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun” at The Bungalow on August 26, 2024 in Santa Monica, California. Eggert discovered her breast cancer through self-examination after a mammogram failed to pick up on it.
Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
A mastectomy is a procedure to remove all or part of a breast either partially or completely. It is often used in the treatment of breast cancer.
The actress explained that she had wanted a double mastectomy—where both breasts are surgically removed—but her doctor insisted on going with a single mastectomy as it would allow her to get back into cancer treatment sooner.
Explaining this, Eggert says: “He said ‘I know you want the double but we also need to get you back into treatment. So let’s do the single—it will keep your immune system up higher than if we take both. You’ll be able to get into treatment quicker, we have less chance of infection and a quicker healing time. You can get back to treatment and then when we reconstruct this one [breast], we will take the other one and reconstruct them at the same time and you’ll have new boobs that aren’t trying to kill you.”
Eggert detected her cancer through a self-exam after mammograms failed to pick up on it.
“I happen to be someone who has very dense breast tissue, so it was missed in the mammograms. I was doing mammograms and ultrasounds, but it wasn’t detected.”
Describing the moment she found the lump on her breast, Eggert said: “I felt a throbbing one day. So when I got in the shower, I did a self-exam, and I felt it and it was large.”
“My heart stopped; I just couldn’t believe that I didn’t know that was there this whole time. Had I been doing self-exams, which I wasn’t, I would have known it was there sooner.”
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Eggert urged listeners “to do it all”—attend mammograms, perform self-exams and go to the gynecologist to get them to perform exams.
“Do the yearly mammograms, the monthly self-exams. I say feel yourself up, that’s my little reminder. Don’t forget to feel yourself up because you have to get to know your body and be aware.”
Outlining the next steps in her journey following the surgery, Eggert says the next steps are getting the pathology report back from the mastectomy and then discussing the next steps with her doctors.
“I will go back into some sort of treatment for three months and then do the scans after three months of treatment. Then we discuss what we do from there.”
She added that she was not thinking about reconstruction of her breasts – rather wearing a “$15 fake boob for now”—and focusing on treatment instead.
“It’s very much just one step at a time. But now it’s healing and getting back into some form of treatment, whatever that is.”
She also emphasized the importance of supplements and foods that help to fight cancer.
At the same time as battling breast cancer, Eggert has produced the docuseries After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun, which features intimate interviews with cast members of the cult 90s show and never-seen-before home videos.
Describing how working on the show had kept her busy through her breast cancer journey, Eggert told Amy and TJ that it gave her “life.” The actress also promised fans that the show would provide “nostalgia and escapism” and “deeper conversations” with the cast.
Newsweek has emailed Nicole Eggert’s representatives for comment.
