After Years Of Silence, Kathy Bates Goes Public To Disclose Dark Personal Battle On Dr. Phil

Jan 24, 2019 by apost team

Academy Award-winning actress Kathy Bates has had a bright and successful career as a leading lady, scene-stealing supporting actress, and beloved cameo star. She played an unsinkable role in Titanic. She smashed more than a leg in her role as Stephen King’s Annie Wilkes character in Misery. In all, she’s appeared in almost 100 films and several dozen TV shows over her career.

Yet, her biggest life achievement was kept hidden from the world for almost two decades. Bates is now telling that story, her own story of surviving two battles with cancer and its aftermath, to Dr. Phil.

After successes like Fried Green Tomato, The Late Shift, Dolores Claiborne, and At Play in the Fields of the Lord, Kathy Bates had a career that proved she could handle most any role Hollywood handed her. What she wasn’t prepared for was the script and edits that her own life was about to hand her. At 55-years-old, Bates was diagnosed with stage one ovarian cancer in 2003.

It would be the beginning of a journey that led her to much self-discovery. Yet, it was one she opted to travel alone and in silence for so very long. Following surgery to remove the cancerous ovarian tumor, she underwent nine months of chemotherapy. Few knew outside Kathy’s inner circle.

She would later explain to a magazine in a 2018 interview that she just didn’t want anyone to know. It also didn’t help that she had a very “old school” agency that didn’t want her to become the poster face for ovarian cancer.

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So, Kathy immediately did what she does best... she took those sour green tomatoes and fried them up. She went back to work after the surgery and proceeded to offer a stellar performance in Little Black Book. No one was the wiser that she was facing a huge black chapter in her own life’s book nor the toll it was taking on her. She was determined to come out the other end alive, however, and that she did.

She became an ovarian cancer survivor. 

Almost 10-years later in 2012, Kathy’s life would once again be unhinged by cancer. She was experiencing extreme exhaustion. Her doctor ordered an MRI, which revealed Kathy had another tumor. This time, it was in her breast. While her BRCA1 and BRCA2 didn’t show the gene mutation indicative of an increased risk for both breasts and ovaries, Kathy’s family history of disease prompted her to go forward with a double mastectomy.

As of 2018, Kathy is now a two-time cancer survivor. Yet, she continues to deal with the aftermath, which she recently explained in a very poignant interview with Dr. Phil. You see, she’s been left with a cancer souvenir called lymphedema. During previous cancer treatments, Kathy’s lymph nodes were removed. Without them to filter out the impurities in the body, Kathy suffers from pain and swelling.

Sadly, lymphedema doesn’t have a cure.

Kathy was left angry and feeling like life and her career were both over, she told Dr.Phil. Our strong, resilient, brave, and optimistic Kathy Bates wouldn’t keep that attitude long, however. Instead, she pulled herself up and became determined to manage her cancer souvenir as best she could and raise awareness for cancer and lymphedema.

For her own self-management, she decided to lose 60 pounds to minimize the pain of lymphedema. She participated in the Stand Up to Cancer event alongside celebs like Jennifer Garner and Reese Witherspoon. She’s also now the National Spokesperson for the Lymphatic Education & Research Network.

What’s Kathy’s advice to her fellow females? Worry less about selfies and what you look like; worry more about keeping your health than looking beautiful. 

Watch Kathy's inspiring word for yourself in the video:

Are you or someone you know battling cancer in silence or without hope? Do you know someone who needs to read Kathy’s story and see her moving interview with Dr. Phil on her health and survival? Leave us your thoughts and questions and pass this video along to anyone in need.