Actress Nicole Eggert announced this week that she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.
The “Charles in Charge” and “Baywatch” actor revealed the news Monday on his “Perfectly Twisted With Nicole Eggert” podcast.
“I have a little bomb to drop,” Eggert said. “I started having a lot of pain on my left side. [in October] and it hurt a lot, so I did a test and found something.”
He then explained that after several rounds of tests, from blood tests to biopsies, his doctors determined in December that he had cancer.
“This is how I spent my vacation. Listen, I cried and had the deepest, darkest thoughts, and I've really been through it,” she continued on his podcast. “I have a path ahead of me, but I am very fond of healing the mind and body, so I feel like there is no way to heal myself if I continue to be upset and worried about it. I have to think positively.”
Eggert was officially diagnosed with stage 2 cribriform carcinoma, a rare and typically slow-growing form of breast cancer, and noted that she will need surgery. He still doesn't know if it has spread through his body.
“Must be removed. So it's just a question of do I have to do the treatment before the surgery or can they do the surgery and then do the treatment afterward,” Eggert told People this week. “I panic and think: just get this out of me. You sit there and it's inside you and you think every second that goes by and it's inside me, it's growing, and you just want it out.”
Reflecting on what the diagnosis means for her going forward, the “Baywatch” star said the illness was “something I have to get over” because she has a 12-year-old daughter who needs her.
“I am the only caregiver. I have no family. “I have nothing,” Eggert said. “This is something I have to get over. [My daughter] “He needs me more than anything and no one.”
To help offset some of the costs of his many future medical expenses, one of Eggert's friends created a GoFundMe for the actor.
“It's been a long time since 'Charles in Charge' and 'Baywatch.' As a single mother, [Eggert has] “She had to struggle financially to raise her two daughters,” the GoFundMe message reads. “She still has a little one at home and is terrified that she won't be able to pay for the necessary treatments and surgery while keeping a roof over her head. She has lost her parents and has no family to lean on or help her with this situation. …her current insurance doesn't even cover the surface of what she needs.”
Eggert gained fame after starring alongside Scott Baio in the CBS comedy “Charles in Charge” from 1987 to 1990. He also starred in two seasons of the beach-centric action drama series “Baywatch” from 1992 to 1994.
Eggert would go on to allege in 2018 that Baio had sexually abused her, and she repeatedly publicly denied those claims. Later that year, Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to charge Baio.
