Amanda Peet revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer at an already difficult time last fall.
“For years, I’ve been told that my breasts are ‘dense’ and ‘voluptuous.’ That’s not a compliment, but a warning that special monitoring is needed,” the “Your Friends and Neighbors” star wrote in a New Yorker essay published Saturday.
“I was seeing a breast surgeon every six months. I went in for what I thought was a routine checkup on the Friday before Labor Day.”
She underwent a biopsy because her doctor “didn’t like the look of something” on the ultrasound.
“After the procedure, she said she would walk the sample to Cedars-Sinai and hand it over to pathology. That’s when I found out,” she explained, noting that the results were shared the next day.
“The tumor appeared to be small, but we will need an MRI after the holidays to determine the ‘extent of the disease,'” Pete continued.
Making matters more difficult, she wrote, her parents, who had been “long divorced,” were in hospice care “on the other side.”
“My mother’s illness started in June, but my father’s illness had only been going on for a week, so I didn’t expect him to go first,” she continued, referring to her sister.
“I flew to New York. I couldn’t make it in time for my father to take his last breath, but I was able to see his body before it was removed from the apartment.”
Pete, who married David Benioff in 2006 and went on to have three children with her, learned her Stage I diagnosis was “hormone receptor positive” and “HER2 negative” when she returned to Los Angeles.
She said, “Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I was happier than when I was a normal person without cancer.”
“But about 10 minutes later I remembered I still needed an MRI and regressed to baseline fear,” she explained.
Later, the doctor told her, “The radiologist would examine my lymph nodes and “the left side for any surprising findings” and would contact me with the results within a week.I realized that the cancer diagnosis would be made with a slow IV drip.”
She had another benign mass in her breast, and treatment would be a lumpectomy and radiation therapy.
The “Saving Silverman” actress then shared her last tender moments with her mother, who passed away in January.
“The morphine took forever to kick in and she was staring at the ceiling and crying, so I climbed into her borrowed hospital bed to get into her line of sight,” she wrote.
“We looked into her eyes and she went quiet. And she and I continued to stare at each other for what seemed like several minutes.”
Following the intimate revelation, friend Sarah Paulson slammed the essay in a social media post on Saturday.
“My best friend, Amanda Peet, the weirdest thing in the world is saying her full name out loud. I call her Bird, which is the name her parents gave her,” Paulson captioned a photo in a magazine article.
“She has written some of the most profound and gorgeous essays about losing her parents while being diagnosed with breast cancer, so I thought it would be appropriate to use her here.”
The “American Horror Story” actress went on to say that she was “screaming with joy from the rooftops.”
“My friend is an essayist for @newyorkermag. How freaking awesome is that? Bird, I love you more than anything,” she concluded her post.
