Nicole Eggert starred in two seasons of the beach-centric action-drama series Baywatch from 1992 to 1994. Photo: Handout
Nicole Eggert announced this week that she has been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.
The Baywatch actor revealed the news Monday on her Perfectly Twisted With Nicole Eggert podcast.
"I have a bit of a bomb to drop," Eggert said. "I started having a lot of pain on my left side [in October] and it was really hurting, so I did an exam and I found something."
She then explained that after several rounds of testing, from blood work to biopsies, her doctors determined in December that she has cancer.
"This is how I spent my holidays. Listen, I cried and I went to the deepest, darkest thoughts, and I've really been through it," she continued on her podcast. "I have a road ahead of me, but but I'm really big into mind-body healing, so I feel like there's no way I can heal if I stay upset and worried about it. I have to think positive."
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. She doesn't know yet if it has spread through her body.
"It needs to be taken out. So it's just a matter of do I have to do treatment before the surgery or can they perform the surgery and then I do the treatment after," Eggert told People this week. "I have panics where I'm like, just get this out of me. You sit there and it's in you and you're like, every second that passes and it's inside of me, it's growing, and you're just like, you just want it out."
Reflecting on what the diagnosis means for her going forward, the star said that the disease was "something I have to get through" because she has a 12-year-old daughter who needs her.
"I'm the only caregiver. I have no family. I have nothing," Eggert said. "This is something that I have to beat. [My daughter] needs me more than anything and anybody."
To help offset some of the costs of her many future medical expenses, one of Eggert's friends set up a GoFundMe for the actor.
"It's been a long time since Charles In Charge and Baywatch. As a single mum, [Eggert has] had to struggle financially to raise her two daughters," the GoFundMe message reads. "She still has a little one at home and she is terrified of not being able to afford the treatments and surgery necessary while also keeping a roof over their heads. She's lost both her parents and doesn't have any family to lean on or help her with this situation.... Her current insurance won't even scratch the surface of what she needs."
Eggert gained fame after she starred alongside Scott Baio in the CBS sitcom Charles In Charge from 1987 to 1990. She 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 he repeatedly publicly denied those claims. Later that year, LA County prosecutors declined to charge Baio. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
