Actress Busy Philipps has revealed she secretly underwent surgery after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
The actress, best known for starring in Dawson’s Creek and White Chicks, had two life-saving procedures to remove the tumour.
Speaking to People magazine, Busy, 47, said: ‘I’m grateful that I’m alive,’ adding that it has been ‘the weirdest six months of my life.’
After going for a scan, she recalled the doctor telling her: ‘This is a real tumour, and it’s inside your brain. And Busy, it’s got to come out,’ which led to her ‘hyperventilating and trying to breathe.’
The Cougar Town actress was diagnosed with grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare slow-growing tumour that is often found in people aged between 30 and 50, in February.
She had been forced to postpone her original appointment due to a blizzard in New York City weeks before.
To add to the unfortunate timing, her scan on February 12 took place just one day after her Dawson’s Creek co-star James Van Der Beek died of colon cancer.
The news also came just weeks before Busy was due to start filming her upcoming legal drama Cupertino, and meant she had to tell her daughters Birdie, 18, and Cricket, 13, about her diagnosis.
Sharing how her children digested the devastating news, Busy said that her eldest, Birdie, was ‘kind of beside herself and really, really scared and overwhelmed with emotion.’
‘I just kept saying to her, “Birdie, you’re just not in the movie where your mom dies your senior year of high school. That’s just not the movie that you’re in. I promise you.”‘
However, Cricket said: ‘”Okay. You’re going to be fine?” And I was like, “I’m totally going to be fine”. And she’s like, “Okay.”‘
Following the surgery, Busy thought she could move on from the ordeal to focus on filming Cupertino. But in April, an appointment with her dermatologist led to a heartbreaking discovery.
‘She’s like, “That doesn’t look right. I’m not going to touch it….Can I take a picture of it and will you send it to your surgeons right now?”…And I did and they immediately were like, “That doesn’t look good”,’ Busy recalled.
Doctors later discovered she had an infection in the incision from the first procedure, which meant she needed surgery again.
‘The second surgery really threw me. I just felt like I was back to square one, and I was really, really upset,’ Busy explained.
Fortunately, Busy has since been told that there is a ‘really great chance this may not occur’, and she’s now found a positive out of a horrible situation.
Referring to her doctor, Busy revealed: ‘She said, “Busy, you have been saying for the past two years, My brain feels broken.” And she was right. I have.
‘I’ve been saying this for the last few years. . . . I wasn’t consciously aware that anything was really wrong, but there was something that was misfiring. Like, I could not get a handle on it. My brain does not feel broken anymore.’
Busy rose to fame starring in Freaks and Geeks before landing a role as Audrey in hit teen drama Dawson’s Creek alongside Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson.
She has also entertained fans in Cougar Town, the comedy series starring Courteney Cox, while some of her more raucous roles have also included the Wayans brothers’ blockbuster comedy White Chicks.
Busy shares her daughters with ex-husband Marc Silverstein, who she divorced in 2021.
Macmillan cancer support
If you or someone you care about has been diagnosed with cancer, Macmillan can offer support and information.
You can contact their helpline on 0808 808 00 00 (7 days a week from 8am to 8pm), use their webchat service, or visit their site for more information.