KATHY: ‘I HAVE LUNG CANCER’
THE COMEDIAN REVEALS HER STAGE DIAGNOSIS: ‘I’M A RESILIENT SURVIVOR’
When Kathy Griffin was diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer in mid-July, the comedian and actress was in disbelief. “I’m still a little bit in shock, not denial,” she told Juju Chang on ABC’s Nightline, “but once a day I’ll just turn to, like, nobody next to me and go, ‘Can you believe this s--t? Is this a bitch or what?’”
A rep for Griffin confirms she underwent surgery on August 2 to remove half of her left lung and “everything went well”. Griffin, 60, who has never been a smoker, wrote on Instagram that “the doctors are very optimistic as it is stage 1”, a small tumour that hasn’t spread to the lymph nodes. “Hopefully no chemo or radiation after this, and I should have normal function with my breathing.”
The frightening diagnosis comes just as Griffin felt her life was getting back on track following a catastrophic four years – which included addiction and mental health battles she’s only revealing now. In May 2017 she sparked national outrage after posting a photograph holding a mask meant to look like the severed head of former US President Donald Trump. The backlash led to death threats and a federal investigation and nearly ended her career in comedy. Amid the fiasco, Griffin’s sister Joyce died from an undisclosed type of cancer in September 2017. (Her older brother Gary died in 2014 from oesophageal cancer.)
Publicly Griffin did her best to move forward, but privately she was struggling with much more. She began abusing an amphetamine, sleep medication and painkillers she was prescribed for various injuries. “It was kind of the allure of ‘Oh, I can regulate my energy levels or my moods. Or … I can be pain-free,’” she told Chang. “It got out of control very rapidly.”
In June 2020, three months after her mother, Maggie, who had dementia, died at age 99, Griffin attempted suicide and was placed on a psychiatric hold. “I started really convincing myself it was a good decision,” she recalled. “I got my living revocable trust in order. I had all my ducks in a row. I wrote the note – the whole thing.”
After months of “nasty” detox, Griffin, who married partner Randy Bick, 43, in late 2020, is sober and ready to take on whatever life throws at her, including cancer. “As a friend of mine had said, ‘How many kicks in the nuts can you take?’ My nuts are pretty strong, but it’s a challenge,” Griffin quipped on Nightline. She added that “the irony is not lost on me that, a little over a year ago, I wanted to die. Now all I want to do is live”. She urged people to stay up-to-date on medical check-ups. “Here’s a silver lining: I’m so thrilled and grateful that I feel like at 60, I’m going to get a next chapter. That’s the thing that everybody said wasn’t going to happen.”