Kathy Griffin has declared that she is cancer-free.
Earlier this year the comedian revealed that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer and would be undergoing surgery to remove part of her lung, and on Tuesday, Griffin happily announced that it had been a success and that she was in remission during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
"I’m cancer-free," Griffin exclaimed as the audience applauded.
"I had surgery, you're not going to believe this — so, I've never smoked but I got lung cancer. In August, I had half of my left lung removed. I'm not even kidding," she told Kimmel.
During her appearance, Griffin's voice was notably higher and more breathy — something that she explained was caused by an intubation tube temporarily affecting her vocal cord.
"So now I'm like Minnie Mouse meets Marilyn Monroe," Griffin quipped.
"It will heal, but I'm sort of enjoying it. I'm a good two octaves higher, I think," she added, before joking, "It's higher than Mariah Carey, I know that."
When asked by Kimmel whether doctors were able to fully remove the tumor, Griffin confirmed that they had.
"I don't know why I had a tumor, right? And I've never smoked, and it was in there for 10 years," she noted. "So get this, they took it out, and they found it on another scan. So I go in, and here's the thing: when you're a comic, it's horrible when the doctors want to do their material on you."
Griffin explained, "So I go in, and he's describing how they take half your lung out, and he goes, 'It's kind of like a balloon. So we do it laparoscopically and we poke it.' And then he goes, 'And when we take it out, it kind of looks like a used condom.' And then he goes, 'You can use that.'"
After undergoing the surgery in August, Griffin provided a candid health update on Instagram explaining that while the procedure went well, the recovery was more than she had anticipated.
"Tonight will be my first night without any narcotic pain killers. Hello Tylenol, my new best friend!" Griffin wrote, further explaining that she was last in hospital in June 2020, after attempting to take her own life by overdosing on prescription drugs.
"With over a year clean and drug-free, I now know I can do this and anything I want without those devil pills," she continued. "Y'know what? I fear drugs and addiction more than I fear cancer. So, I think I'll be OK."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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