DIRTY John actress Amanda Peet has revealed her secret breast cancer battle – which she kept hidden while both her parents were in hospice care.
The American screen star, who has starred in Animal Room, The Whole Nine Yards and My Friends and Neighbors to name a few, bravely laid bare her health woes in an emotional essay.
American actress Amanda Peet has bravely revealed her battle with breast cancerCredit: Getty
The New York born actress, 54, kept the diagnosis secret from her parents, who were undergoing hospice careCredit: Getty
She is known for movies including Dirty JohnCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Amanda, seen with husband David Benioff, had been undergoing regular monitoring for her ‘dense’ breastsCredit: Getty
born , 54, opened her piece in The New Yorker with the stark words: “Both of my parents were in hospice, on opposite coasts.
“Then I found out that I had breast “.
The actress, producer, and writer then candidly documented her diagnosis and treatment in a detailed account.
Amanda, who is a mum of three and married to co-creator , told how she was aware her “dense” and “busy” breasts needed extra monitoring.
She explained she was being monitored every six months for any changes yet it was a routine scan which raised the alarm.
Amanda wrote that her doctor “didn’t like the way something looked on the ultrasound” before referring her for a biopsy.
She continued: “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”.
Amanda, who co-produced and wrote the 2021 series, The Chair, was juggling her diagnosis and the discovery of a small tumour with the illness of her separated parents.
She was told she had Stage 1, hormone-receptor-positive (HR+), HER2-negative breast cancer, an early stage tumour.
She wrote in her essay: “I was happier than I’d been pre-diagnosis, when I was just a regular person who didn’t have cancer.
“After about 10 minutes, I remembered that I still needed the MRI and regressed to baseline terror”.
The results showed a second lump in her breast, which required a lumpectomy and radiation.
Amanda opened up on dividing her mental and emotional time and said: “Our parents, long divorced, were both in hospice, on opposite coasts.
“Our mother’s had started in June, but our father’s was only a week in, so we hadn’t expected him to go first.
“I flew to New York. I didn’t make it before my father took his last breath, but I got to see his body before it was taken from his apartment”.
Amanda’s dad, Charles Peet Jnr, worked as a corporate lawyer.
She then told how she returned to to be with her mother, Penny Levy, who was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.
Amanda decided against telling her the news of her shock diagnosis or her father’s passing prior to her death.
Instead, she told how she clambered into Penny’s bed during her final moments.
She wrote: “We locked eyes and she quieted down, and then she and I continued to stare at each other for what felt like several minutes”.
She added: “I wasn’t sure whether my mom knew that she was looking at me or whether I was just a constellation of interesting, disembodied shapes.
‘I said ‘howdy doodle’ – that’s how she often greeted me. But then I realised that she was communing without words, and I followed suit. Time was running out, and, besides, I had already told her everything”.
Penny, who used to work as a social worker, passed in 2025.
Meanwhile, Amanda’s best mate Sarah Paulson was quick to praise her pal’s “profoundly gorgeous essay”.
Amanda was told she had Stage 1, hormone-receptor-positive (HR+), HER2-negative breast cancer, which is an early stage tumourCredit: Getty
She had a lumpectomy and radiationCredit: Apple TV
She also starred in the Whole Nine YardsCredit: Warner
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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