Amanda Peet Reveals She Was Diagnosed with Breast Cancer While Both of Her Parents Were in Hospice

Peet opened up about her breast cancer diagnosis in an essay published by 'The New Yorker'

NEED TO KNOW

• Amanda Peet revealed in an open essay on Saturday, March 21, that she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in the fall of 2025
• Her diagnosis came during a difficult time, as both her parents were in separate hospices battling illnesses
• Peet underwent a lumpectomy and radiation and shared she had her first clear scan in January

Amanda Peet has revealed she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer.

In an essay published by The New Yorker on Saturday, March 21, the actress, 54, said that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in the fall of 2025, around the same tragic time her parents were dying in separate hospices.

Peet explained that she’d been told “for many years” that her breasts “require extra monitoring” and she “had been seeing a breast surgeon every six months for checkups,” before finding out her diagnosis six months ago.

“The Friday before Labor Day, I went for what I thought would be a routine scan. Dr. K. … told me that she didn’t like the way something looked on the ultrasound and wanted to perform a biopsy,” she said. “After the procedure, she said that she would walk the sample over to Cedars-Sinai and hand-deliver it to Pathology. That’s when I knew.”

Peet said that a “small” tumor was found in her breast and she had to have an MRI to “determine the extent of the disease.”

The Your Friends & Neighbors star explained that during this time, both her parents were ill in hospices “on opposite coasts.” After her first round of tests, Peet's father took a turn and she flew to New York to be with him. Unfortunately, she did not arrive before he died.

When she returned to Los Angeles, Peet said that she received a phone call from her doctor, telling her that her breast cancer was “HER2-negative.”

HER2-negative breast cancer is when cancerous cells in the breast don’t contain high levels of the protein human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2), which fuels cancer growth, according to Mayo Clinic.

“You’d think that I had just taken Ecstasy. I was happier than I’d been pre-diagnosis…,” recalled Peet. “But after about 10 minutes, I remembered that I still needed the MRI and regressed to baseline terror. Dr. K. said that the radiologist would check my lymph nodes, as well as ‘the left side for any surprise findings’ …. It was dawning on me that cancer diagnoses come in a slow drip.”

Peet said that the radiologist “didn’t see evidence of lymph-node involvement,” however, a “second mass” was found in the same breast and more tests were carried out to examine the cells.

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Peet said that the results showed that the second mass was “benign” and that she had stage I breast cancer, which required “a lumpectomy and radiation, not a double mastectomy or chemotherapy.”

Once she found out her second tumor was benign, Peter and her husband, David Benioff, decided to tell their older daughters Frances and Molly June.

"My therapist said that I didn’t have to appear strong or unfazed or have definitive answers," Peet said of telling her eldest children. "She said that I’d be surprised by how much children can step up and that calling for all hands on deck can make them feel useful. Molly cried, and Frankie — FaceTiming from her college quad — clapped her hand over her mouth and kept it there until she was able to process the excellent portion of the news: that it appeared I was stage I and wasn’t going to need chemo."

Peet and Benioff are also parents to son Henry.

After lots of nerves and fear, Peet shared that she had her “first clear scan” in mid-January. Days later, her mother, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, died in the hospice.

Read the full article here