Blythe Danner has been suffering from a rare cancer for four years. The actress is only now revealing her diagnosis to the public. But her children, Gwyneth and Jake Paltrow, do not immediately find out about their mother’s condition. She didn’t want them to worry, the 79-year-old said.
Blythe Danner has opened up about her cancer for the first time. The 79-year-old actress and mother of Gwyneth Paltrow told People magazine that she was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2018.
“I suddenly felt very light-headed and forgot everything,” she recalls. “And then I felt a knot in the back of my neck, right next to where Bruce found his.” Danner’s husband, Bruce Paltrow, had also suffered from a rare form of oral cavity cancer. In 2002, the film producer died of the disease. “Are you lonely up there?” Danner wondered after the diagnosis.
At first she didn’t tell her children, Gwyneth and Jake Paltrow. “I wanted to continue as a mother, and I didn’t want them to worry,” explains Blythe Danner. “Of course I was very shocked,” her famous daughter recalled in an interview with “People”. “It was scary. And it felt really scary because it was so similar to my dad,” Paltrow said.
Blythe Danner is better today. She has undergone chemotherapy, radiation and alternative therapies. In 2020 she underwent the third operation. The tumor tissue was removed. “It’s an insidious disease,” says the actress, who works with the Oral Cancer Foundation to fight against oral cancer. “But now I’m fine and fine. And I’m glad I’m still alive.”
