Blythe Danner reveals battling the same cancer as Bruce Paltrow

Blythe Danner has revealed that she privately battled the same cancer that killed her late husband, Bruce Paltrow.

Danner, 79 — the mother of Gwenyth Paltrow, 50, and Jake Paltrow, 47 — was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare form of oral cancer in the salivary glands, in March 2018 and is now in remission.

“Everyone is affected by cancer in some way, but it’s unusual for a couple to have the same cancer,” Danner told People.

“I remember looking up at the sky and saying to Bruce, ‘Are you lonely up there?'” she recalls of her diagnosis. “It’s an insidious disease. But now I’m fine and dandy. And I’m lucky to be alive.”

Although the type of cancer may be the same as the one her husband endured 33 years from in 2002, Danner was not afraid of death.

“I wasn’t shaking in my boots. I’m not afraid of death at all,” she said.

Danner also shared that her views on death changed after she lost her husband.

“You never get over a loss like that. Bruce was the heart of our family. And life is so much paler without him. But grief is the price we pay for love.”

In 2018, while working in London, the actress “started feeling very lightheaded” and “forgot everything.”

“And then I felt a lump on the back of my neck, right next to where Bruce found his [in 1999],” She said.

After two surgeries and years of searching for alternative treatments, the Meet the Parents actress underwent a third surgery in 2020, which successfully removed the cancerous tissue. She also went through the process of radiation and chemotherapy.

For a long time, Danner held the diagnosis in front of her children.

“I wanted to get ahead as a mom, and I didn’t want them to worry,” Danner said.

When Gwyneth found out about her mother’s cancer, she said she was “very shocked”.

“It was scary. And it felt really scary because it was something like that [to my dad’s]’ said the Goop founder. “She went through it with so much grace. I was amazed at how strong she could be.”

Danner is currently lobbying for the Oral Cancer Foundation, which hopes to raise awareness of oral and oropharyngeal cancer.

“I think we’ve all kind of gotten stronger. It’s a bit of a bummer — this disease and this life,” Danner said. “But I had a career, great kids and a loving husband. I’m very grateful.”