I will admit that I’m torn on what to think about E! correspondent Giuliana Rancic’s latest announcement that she has breast cancer and is undergoing a double mastectomy. It makes me feel like a bad person to admit that. On one side she’s going through an incredibly difficult health battle and is raising awareness of a disease that affects one in 8 women in the U.S. On the other she’s engaged in some obvious self promotion, which is understandable given her job. This is a woman with a reality show and a lifestyle website. I feel for her that she has cancer and I do think it’s brave of her to go public with this, but I still can’t help but see her as a mix of Gwyneth Paltrow and The Kardashians.
So anyway Giuliana went on The Today Show earlier this week to announce that the lumpectomy she had for early stage breast cancer (which she announced in October) wasn’t effective and that she would be having a double mastectomy and reconstruction. Then she went on Wendy Williams and The Ryan Seacrest show (he’s her boss at E! after all) and now she’s on the cover of People. I would rather see People highlight this important health issue than try and make us care why the latest bachelorette dumped her boyfriend.
Giuliana Rancic knows she’ll have scars from her upcoming double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. And she plans to embrace them.
“I think scars tell such an incredible story,” the E! News anchor, 37, tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “I’ll always look at them and think, ‘Wow, I made it through that.’ ”
Still, she admits that there are moments as she lays in bed next to her husband Bill, 40, when impact of her shocking cancer diagnosis hits her.
“Usually it’s 2 in the morning, and I’ll turn around from Bill so I don’t wake him up, and I just cry,” she says. “I sob and think, ‘How did this happen?’ ”
Mostly, though, the “tough Italian woman,” as Bill calls his wife of four years, is determined to eradicate the disease that has turned her world upside down since being diagnosed three months ago.
“My breasts have never defined me – and now they never will,” says Giuliana, whose surgery is scheduled for Dec. 13.
[From People]
I hope she recovers fully, I hope she and Bill have that child they were hoping for all along, and I hope her story inspires others to get mammograms. For people with cancer, I hope they are inspired by Giuliana’s story to power through their treatment and stay positive. I think that I can listen to what she’s going through and feel for her, but still not be a huge fan, you know?
Here’s a clip of Giuliana and Bill on The Wendy Williams show. I do like Bill a lot.
Giuliana is shown interviewing Angelina Jolie on the red carpet on Monday. Credit: WENN.com
he seems like a great partner…hope they make it through..love the show!
I have no feelings about her personally. I’m not a huge E watcher, nor do i watch much reality tv anyways. I do however respect her for going public. I lost my dear friend and cousin to breast cancer in August. SHe was only 26, 23 when she was diagnosed. In my opinion breast cancer awareness can never be over-exposed. On that note, do remember to check your breasts and CB please make that appointment for your mamagram.
I made the appointment with a different doctor a couple of days ago! Thanks for reminding me.
Good woman!
I will admit that I’m torn on what to think about E! correspondent Giuliana Rancic’s latest announcement that she has breast cancer and is undergoing a double mastectomy. It makes me feel like a bad person to admit that. On one side she’s going through an incredibly difficult health battle and is raising awareness of a disease that affects one in 8 women in the U.S. On the other she’s engaged in some obvious self promotion, which is understandable given her job. This is a woman with a reality show and a lifestyle website. I feel for her that she has cancer and I do think it’s brave of her to go public with this, but I still can’t help but see her as a mix of Gwyneth Paltrow and The Kardashians.
Same thing with me, Celebitchy.
I have never liked her and I don’t think I ever will…but I hope she’ll be fully recovered after this.
However, I DO think she’s using this for promoting herself more than she’s actually trying to use it in order to help other women.
Thank you for saying that CB I haven’t posted anything with respect to her breast cancer because I’m not a fan of hers and don’t want to come across as mean or cruel. While I would never wish her ill will, I don’t like her and find her annoying and famewhory.
This is how I feel so I avoided the posts because what she’s going through is terrible.
The comment I tried to post yesterday was deleted. Whilst I find her decidedly irritating, I wish her no ill & a full recovery.
Amen! You and Celebitchy summed up my feelings about her and the whole situation, she is and usually comes accross as vain, shallow, now all this media rounds… wish her the best but …maybe dont want to hear her about it in minute detail in nbc, e!, style? Maybe?
In that picture where she’s interviewing Angelina, she’s giving Angie the side-eye. Probably because she had to stand next to someone thinner than her!
Yeah I agree I feel like it’s awesome to put this out about breast cancer, but I feel like now if she fighting for her life, how does she have time to do all these interviews and photo shoots? I’m cynical I usually don’t trust every one’s intentions especially in Hollywood but nonetheless I feel that women should be tested and keep up their yearly routine appointments, but all in all I hope she recovers regardless of a like or dislike of a person no one deserves to have to go through this.
I am with all of you. I don’t wish cancer on ANYONE and I have breast cancer suvivors and victims in my family as well.
Having said that, I too always get the feeling she’s just looking for publicity. **ducks head in shame**
I can completely relate to this this. I am not a fan…but I hope she recovers fully. What I would like to see is some discussion about the differences in treatment for women in the US for someone like Rancic with health insurance and money, which will be the best money can buy, and for women without either of these things. There a still women who die of untreated breast cancer due to lack of funding to see a physician and/or ignorance and lack of education about the disease itself. This is not all that uncommon in the US. I’d like to see that change.
I can’t stand her husband. She’s obviously sick with an eating disorder, to the point where her hairline has drastically receded from malnutrition. I know sick people don’t realize they are sick, but her husband surely must see it. And he doesn’t care.
I feel sorry for her. I hope after the cancer scare she wakes up and realizes she has an eating disorder and that her husband is an ass for not addressing it with her sooner, and she leaves him. I do NOT hope she has the baby she’s been trying for — at least not yet — because I think she needs to deal with her own emotional issues including the eating disorder and jerky husband before she has kids.
Dear Lord, everyone who is slender isn’t anorexic. Her arms aren’t sticks so I don’t consider her unhealthy. I have tall, slender friends. And during the stress of cancer she has probably dropped a few pounds. Who wouldn’t.
She has always had a high forehead since her early career. Lots of women have high foreheads. Calling it receding is due to eating habits is funny. Receding hairline on women is a female having male pattern baldness, which is hereditary. That’s the only way it recedes. Diffuse hair loss can be unhealthy diet or extreme stress or hormonal, but her hair has always been about the same.
She obviously has issues with food and weight. She’s on a very restrictive diet, so that alone tells me that she is not naturally that thin. If she was naturally thin, she wouldn’t have to worry about what she eats.
(1) The doctor told her to gain weight, which she refused to do;
(2) She didn’t always look this way, so this is not her “natural” body shape; and
(3) Her hairline didn’t always look like this either, she has drastic hair loss.
Yeah, she has an eating disorder. Ignoring it is not helping, which is why I dislike her husband. Her, I feel sorry for, and hope she wakes up one day and realizes what she’s doing to herself.
When she couldn’t get pregnant because she didn’t weigh what she’s supposed to, and the doctor told her to gain weight, and she didn’t do what the doctor ordered, means that her fertility treatments (which lead to her cancer) were for nothing. That’s sad. But what’s even sadder is her husband hasn’t done anything to help her with her real problem, her EATING DISORDER (not her inability to get pregnant – that’s a secondary problem caused by her primary, and dangerous, problem).
Yeah but it doesn’t take a genius to see that she has some issues with food.
I have to agree about Bill. Bill is a guy who *says* all of the right things, but his actions are all over the place.
Through watching their show, and even in the interviews where he’s being so “supportive,” he never fails to announce that whatever-tragedy is going to be fine and “not to look back” “cry” or he keeps moving them and forging ahead. Maybe he has the best of intentions, but I can’t imagine that a really supportive partner wouldn’t be able to be with you when you just Feel.
I don’t get why no one is talking about fertility drugs in relation to increased cancer! Drastic hormonal changes can completely screw up the body. Pregnancy itself can be a major factor in when someone gets cancer.
Her treatments led to her cancer? See, I was with you for awhile, but now you’re just making crap up. You have no idea what caused her cancer; millions of women undergo fertility treatments without developing cancer. You are sad.
Her own doctor told her to get a mammogram because the treatments accelerate cancer. This was before her THIRD ROUND – she had already gone through two rounds of it.
http://www.wellnessresources.com/studies/beginning_ivf_treatments_after_age_30_increases_the_risk_of_breast_cancer
Of course, people get cancer for various reasons – family history, radiation exposure, and simply bad luck. She should concentrate of beating the cancer 100%. Then she needs to concentrate on her eating disorder. The fertility treatments and getting pregnant should take a back seat. But I’m sure there are enablers (like her husband) who will continue to ignore her eating disorder.
There is some controversy about whether “fertility treatments” increase one’s risk of cancer. I took clomid to help my follicles mature and HcG to ovulate. These treatments have been available for more than 30 years and SOME studies indicate these (and other treatments) may be associated with increased risk of breast and ovarian cancers (some studies say uterine cancers too). Other studies link infertility (and hormone imbalance) to these cancers even when the patient hasn’t undergone fertility treatments. And, just for some perspective, my reproductive endocrinologist told me breastfeeding increases your chances of developing melanoma (the deadliest form of skin cancer) due to the increase in the production of melanin. Bottom line, lots of things increase our chances of cancer. However, it doesn’t mean they are the CAUSE of cancer. It’s a combo of environment and genetics. Perhaps she was predisposed to breast cancer.
I agree. He’s an ass, and she is suffering from an eating disorder. I hope she gets healthy in every sense of the word.
I like her husband and as with anyone with any disorder or addiction – I am SURE he is aware of her issues!!
You can’t force someone to eat, just like you can’t force someone to lose weight.
Should I walk up to husbands of every fat wife I see and say “hey, your wifey is kinda fat, didja know? might want to reel her in”.
Hell no. That would be rude, but because she is thin, it’s ok to make assumptions he doesn’t say or do anything in private.
WE don’t know WHY she can’t get pregnant. WE can assume maybe, her weight might be an issue but then so many other women also have this problem it’s not 100% to say, oh if she gained 15 pounds she would of gotten pregnant and ignorant of anyone to say and actually believe it. Get real.
Didn’t her doctor tell her to gain some weight? I don’t automatically assume that the reason a woman isn’t pregnant yet is due to her weight. But in this case, her doctor thought she needed to gain weight, and is anyone here qualified to second-guess her doctor? I would say no.
I also don’t automatically blame spouses for a woman’s weight. But, again, IN THIS CASE, don’t you think being on a reality tv show can affect a person’s image of their weight (the camera adds 10 to 20 pounds)? I think so. While I don’t know for CERTAIN that being on tv contributes to her skewed body image, if I were a loving husband of a woman with anorexia, I’d at least demand a break from tv to take that factor out of the equation. Why take the chance and gamble with your wife’s health? Oh, that’s right – because HE benefits from the show. I find that selfish.
Cancer is a terrible disease. I have sympathy for anyone one going through it or who had loved ones going through it. I hope for the best possible outcome for all of you who are going through it.
Sorry, somehow this ended up in the wrong place.
she is completely milking her health issue for career gain. turns me off her even more.
of course, nobody wishes to hear of a woman having to go through this, but she is clearly exploiting the situation.
Exactly!
I completely agree with you, Jackie
Cancer as a career move.
She’s got to have a PR person selling her to get covers and couch time on morning shows with the “cancer angle.”
She used to blast the Kartrash clan, now she’s sold her own wedding, baby making, weird fertility hormone infusing treatments that made her sick, her entire marriage and her cancer to t.v.
I’m no fan of hers or her husband’s and I don’t wish her ill (or further ill) but I can’t help but think E! keeps giving her the forum to broadcast all this stuff. Sure she could turn the offers down but this has become her life, doing everything so publicly. It probably feels normal to her at this point.
Or maybe I’m wrong and she and Bill are in fact milking everything in their life for all it’s worth.
I was under the impression that it wasn’t that the lumpectomy “didn’t work” but that she chose to undergo a double mastectomy as a preventative measure – to significantly reduce the chances of the cancer coming back.
Her husband said on The Today Show that all the cancer wasn’t cleared out from the “margins” of one of her breasts and they weren’t sure they could get it all.
Ah right. That’s too bad.
It is always a possibility, to my knowledge, that the surgeon has to go in a second time if there are not clear margins. They don’t know this until they test it in the lab. I had one surgery and my margins were thankfully clear (I think my surgeons took extra just to be safe), but I know people who’ve had to have a second surgery to get everything clear, and for the lab to show no cancer cells in the outer region of the mass they remove.
The test came back there was still some the lumpectomy didn’t get.
My take on is she’s trying to keep going to help her through her journey. People cope in different ways. The one thing that comes through from their show is she’s a workaholic, I think this is her way of coping.
I hope she fully recovers and they’re able to have their desperately wanted family.
I agree.
Totally agree that this is her way of working through things. She is a public figure with a public profile, she has a fanbase who thank her for changing lives (and she is) by going public, I’m sure she does get a lot of questions about what is going on so she is out there answering them. I don’t find her famewhory in the least and wish her and Bill all the best down this road. I went down it myself last year and it is some scary shit.
My oldest sister is in remission for the dreaded disease…
My youngest sister just found out Monday that she has a mass in her right breast…
I just took my first mammogram…and thank the Lord…I’m okay…
I am however dealing with a LOT of…I guess guilt…
So…when I see those words now…I am on the verge of TEARS!
Lisa, I will be praying for your sisters and you! Love and light to you all.
I hope you’re all OK Lisa – don’t feel guilty, just keep taking care of yourself and your sisters. Be well!
guilt?!!
turn that guilt into the BEST SUPPORT EVER!
hope all gets better…
@Lisa..I will keep you and your sisters in my prayers.
I don’t know how to feel about this. I’m a non smoker with lung cancer. I have a 5% chance of living 2 years. Btw ladies, lung cancer is the fastest growing cancer and will soon surpass breast cancer and has the lowest survival rate. Talk to a cancer org. to see what to look for.
Lisa, breast cancer has one of the highest survival rates. So both your sisters should be ok. 🙂
BOT I’m not sure how I feel about this whole thing. It almost seems like she is commercializing cancer …I’m sensitive on the subject, so I could be wrong.
Aly,
I’m so sorry for your recent diagnosis. I can only imagine the thoughts that you are experiencing at this difficult time. In a way, I don’t have to imagine it. I had a health scare in June when it became extremely painful to take deep breaths and general movement was exhausting. I went to the ER and was told that I had a 5cm tumor in my left lung and given the number to the oncology department. I was devastated and in such a state of shock that I couldn’t stop looking at my husband and kids and crying. The oncology department refused to see me until I was formally diagnosed by a pulmonologist. But during the time before I could see a pulmonologist were incredibly terrifying. I read all that I could about lung cancer and the terrible statistics that you referenced. When I got to the pulmonologist, she stated that the ER doc should not have told me that I had a tumor, that many issues can cause a mass in the lungs. She started treating me with antibiotics and ordered several extensive tests. Initially, the mass did not shrink, so I was switched to a different drug and sent to get a contrasting PET scan that was supposed to highlight the existence of any sort of cancerous activity. It came back clear and, with the new drug, the mass began to shrink. I was then given an official diagnosis of pneumonia.
When I was doing my research, I saw that over 20% of lung cancer diagnoses are for people that have never smoked. Yet, our country is reluctant to fully fund lung cancer research because we believe if people choose to smoke, then they deserve to get sick with lung cancer. Of course, common sense says that no one wants or deserves the destruction can cancer can cause.
I hope that you are a part of the 5% and that you live a happy life for many years to come.
Thank you JustBe,
I was the same way. Lung cancer …me? Impossible. Funny as it sounds, I’m very happy you had pneumonia. 😀
Oh, I just passed my 1 year mark. Half way there!
@Aly-Good luck to you-I really hope you beat it! Glad to hear you are 50% towards the 2 year mark.
Thank EVERYONE for your kind words!!!
I am a rock…middle child et al…so I will handle what may come!!!
Youngest sister dosen’t have healthcare …so I am foraging for programs/grants…any and everything to make sure that she gets all the help she can get!
@Aly…and everyone who is dealing with a traumatic physical illness…
Thank you for your candor…thank you for your kindness…I WISH YOU HEAVEN!!!
Lisa,
I know most universities base payment on income and they have social workers to find grants,medicine etc. to help with everything.
The new healthcare law has a provision for people like your sister, people who have come down with a devastating illness but dont have health insurance and dont otherwise qualify. The hospital billing or patient advocate should have info about it. Or look it up online under the affordable care act. It is called the pre existing condition insurance plan on healthcare.gov
I like them both & feel horribly for them. I almost feel like it’s a double edged sword, with the lives they lead. Had she of not said anything, then it would be “what is she hiding” & as she potentially gotten sicker & her appearance changed it would be “she’s starving herself” or the doctor/hospital visits “did she miscarry?” It’s almost as if they have to come forth with intimate details of the cancer battle & her decision to avoid excess scrutiny & invasion of privacy. At least if they put the information out they have a better control of the spin-masters & speculators.
I agree.
I got breast cancer for my 40th b-day… had it removed and am doing fine, 13 years now.
I am convinced my cancer was because my Doctor thru hormones at me when I needed more info and options when I started my change at 35.
I never had recon. … but wish I had the option to have both removed and then have them done. They don’t give you much time to think.
I am just wondering what size she will be when she’s done.
God bless you all! Prayers and best wishes to those who are suffering and/or have family suffering. Cancer is a terrifying thing. We have 2 breast cancer survivors in our church, and 1 who is still struggling through treatment. (Our pastor’s wife.)
(And here hubs thinks this is just a gossip site. When we are actually a support network, despite our snark and internet anonymity.)
I’m not sure why her going public is called exploitative. She isn’t filming every minute of it.
The initial announcement was what, a month ago? She’s kept a low profile between then and now. Cancer isn’t usually something that people stay silent about, famous or not.
Morticians- preach it my fellow reproductively-challenged friend! As far as the Rancic; I did not want to like her but her helping put the spotlight on infertility helped me feel not as alone and for that I’m grateful. But I too feel that the bold letters and photoshopped magazine cover spell “attention-seeker”. I don’t envy her battle and I genuinely hope she and every other cancer patient keep fighting the good fight.
I hope she gets through this and they have the child that they’ve been hoping for!
Much as I feel for anyone facing the fear cancer inevitably brings, I do wonder where she got the notion that how she feels now is how she’ll feel after such radical surgery.
I’ve had cancer – nearly killed me because of late diagnosis – and I know we cannot predict our emotions ahead of time. The many others I know who’ve had cancer all say the same.
And I would plead that she goes back to her doctor and asks for the real figures on the number of women who’ve had a double mastectomy, only to find that the cancer can – and sometimes does – come back in the underlying muscle that has to be left.
Another problem she will run into is also that, having espoused such an up-beat perspective now, no matter how deep her depression after the event if she feels she was SO wrong; can she come out and admit this? Or will she torture herself by pretending nothing’s changed.
Go back and ask your doctor for facts about recurrence. More conservative surgery followed by possible improvements in care, perhaps in the near future, is still a possibility.
‘Loving my scars’ sounds a lovely thing to say now – Tell me after the event, and for all the following years and I may believe you. You do not know!
This woman was wrong to say how much
pain she was in! Nice going! For sympathy? Sure nice of her to encourage
others to have the surgery!Anyone having
the surgery, and afterwards, is given
medication for pain.
She’s too dramatic.
This is written by someone that had the
same operation – ME!