ABC News national correspondent Will Reeve has spoken publicly about his “deeply personal health battle” with cancer.
The Good Morning America star, who is the 34-year-old son of Superman star Christopher Reeve, announced on the morning show Tuesday that he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in the spring, which then spread to lymph nodes in his abdomen.
After finding a lump in his testicle in April, Will went to the doctor at the urging of his wife, Amanda, who he married in January. He had the cancerous testicle removed in May, and then underwent a six-hour surgery in June to remove dozens of his lymph nodes and begin chemotherapy.
Throughout the month of July, Will underwent nine-hour sessions of chemotherapy and cold-capping (a treatment during chemotherapy to prevent hair loss) with Amanda by his side at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer City in New York City. He recalled experiencing side effects including bone pain, ringing ears, blood clots, night sweats and headaches.
As of a September 8 check-up, Will is now cancer-free.
“The diagnosis was a shock and the treatments were a slog,” he said on the show. “Today, though, I am relieved to announce that we arrived at our destination and this cancer is in the rearview mirror. But what a journey.”
Will, who joined ABC News in 2018, took two and a half weeks off of GMA to recover.
The anchor said that his cancer treatment made him feel closer to his late mother, Dana Reeve, who died of lung cancer at age 44 in March 2006 after undergoing chemotherapy at Sloan Kettering.
“The irony is not lost on me that 20 years after my mom died of lung cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering, there I was in the same building getting treated for cancer,” Will told People in an interview published Tuesday. “I was experiencing life as each of my parents at the same time. Because I was a cancer patient at Memorial Sloan Kettering, I was getting a firsthand experience at what my mother went through.”
He also shared how his experience with cancer helped him to relate to his mother’s role as a caregiver to her husband and Will’s father, Christopher, who was known for playing the title character in the four Superman films from 1978 to 1987.
Dana cared for Christopher for years after the late actor was left paralyzed by a horse-riding accident in 1995. He died of heart failure at age 52 in 2004.
Will continued, “Simultaneously, I was learning more about what it was like to be my dad in the final nine years of his life, where he had my mom and our family taking care of him. And there I was with my wife, who, since the day I met her, has reminded me in so many ways of my mom, now playing the role of wife and caregiver.”
He went on to say that he shared his story in hopes of raising awareness about testicular cancer, which develops in 1 out of 250 men in their lifetimes, according to the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation.
“I want folks to know that this is a thing that can happen,” Will said. “It's shocking. It's weird. It's slightly awkward to talk about just because of what we're really discussing here, but that you end up okay, almost always.”
