Jill Goodacre, a former model and the wife of musician and actor Harry Connick, Jr., revealed Wednesday her secret five-year battle with breast cancer.
Goodacre, 53, told People that she went for a routine annual mammogram in October 2012, and though that test came back clear, her sonogram didn’t.
After undergoing a biopsy, the model learned she had Stage 1 invasive ductal carcinoma, the most common form of breast cancer.
She immediately underwent a lumpectomy and radiation, which she says “absolutely wiped (her) out.”
Connick, who lost his mother to ovarian cancer when he was just 13, admitted that his wife’s health scare left him fearful.
“I was scared I was going to lose her, absolutely,” he told People. “I wasn’t going to let her see that, but I was. I know from losing my mom that the worst can happen. She’s my best friend, and I really don’t know what I would do without her.”
The couple also revealed that one of the most difficult parts of learning Goodacre had cancer was breaking the news to their three daughters.
“It broke my heart,” she said.
In the five years since her diagnosis, Goodacre says she’s continued to take Tamoxifen, an estrogen modular that helps halt breast cancer — but that the negative side effects, like weight gain, have been difficult to deal with.
“I’ve always been a pretty fit person, and so to be just rounder and heavier and not to really be able to do much about it — that’s been hard,” she said. “It’s taken a lot out of my self-confidence.”
Connick and Goodacre — who tied the knot in 1994 — explained that since she’s been in remission for five years now, it felt like the right time to share their battle with the world.
“It wasn’t like we were superstitious, like if we said something about being in the clear we’d somehow jinx it,” she said. “But we wanted to be well on the other side of things before we told everybody. The doctors all say that after the five-year mark, things look optimistic, so we’re starting to feel pretty good.”
Goodacre will talk more about her breast cancer battle on Thursday’s episode of her husband’s show “Harry.”
