Danielle Fishel is opening up about how she told her husband and their two young kids that she was diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer.
In an episode of the Amy & T.J. podcast hosted by Amy Robach and T. J. Holmes published Sunday, Oct. 20, the Boy Meets World alum, 43, recalled an important conversation she recently had with her husband Jensen Karp, and sons Adler Lawrence, 5, and Keaton Joseph, 3.
“It was hard for me to have to tell my husband,” the actress said, noting that Karp’s parents had already died.
“His mom died in 2022 from lung cancer, and she lived with us while she was going through chemo and through her cancer treatment.”
“And my oldest son, Adler, was 3 when she passed, and he was very close to her. And one of my big concerns when he asked, ‘Where did grandma go? Why is grandma not here anymore?’ ” she said.
Fishel said discussing death with her oldest needed to be handled delicately.
“My big concern was that if we tell him that she was sick, he’s gonna think the next time he gets a cold that he’s gonna die, or that the next time mommy or daddy is sick, he’s gonna think we’re gonna die,” she said.
“And so I wanted to be honest with him about the fact that she had cancer and that cancer doesn’t always mean that you die, but sometimes it does. And in grandma’s case, that’s what it was. And so when I was diagnosed, my fear was, I’m normally so honest with my kids, but I can’t tell them I have cancer.”
She never told her boys that she had cancer, instead saying, “I had a boo boo that I had surgically removed from my body, and they needed to be gentle with me.”
For their family, playtime had to be done differently.
“I told them I love our bear hugs and I love wrestling with you, but my boo boo means that I need to be gentle. So you need to hug me from this side and eventually, I’ll get back to wrestling with you.”
Adler noticed once she recovered enough to rough house, and asked if she was okay.
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“I was so happy to tell him that, yes, my boo boo was all better,” she said. “My friends, my family, the breast cancer community, I’ve never felt more loved and supported than I have in these last three months.”
Fishel recently told PEOPLE she was “thrilled to be alive” since her July 22 ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) diagnosis following a routine mammogram.
“I was feeling healthy, I was looking healthy. But I went in for my mammogram and they said it looked suspicious and the results are abnormal,” she told PEOPLE. “I was not expecting in any way that it was going to find anything. It was really shocking.”
Though Fishel may not be “thrilled” about some lingering side effects, she added, “I am thrilled to be alive and I’m thrilled that my cancer was found early.”
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