Amanda Peet didn’t hold back when she opened up about her breast cancer diagnosis and how her family handled it. In a recent essay and interviews, she talked about what it was like to share the news with her kids, what she’s been through, and how she’s finding her way through everything: grief, illness, and recovery. People really connected with her honesty.
How Amanda Peet’s kids reacted to her cancer diagnosis
Talking with E! News, Amanda said she leaned on friends and family right away. When it came to telling her kids, Frances, 19, Molly, 15, and Henry, 11, she needed a moment to collect herself first. “They’ve been great,” she said, but she admitted there’s never a perfect time for that kind of conversation. “The hard part was realizing that nothing is certain and there was going to be no perfect time to tell them.”Amanda explained in her New Yorker essay that her cancer is hormone-receptor-positive and HER2-negative, which means it’s less aggressive and usually easier to treat. She only needed a lumpectomy and radiation, not a double mastectomy. She’s grateful her kids are right there with her, even if they’re still just kids. They keep her grounded—sometimes by being totally unimpressed.She laughed about trying to show them Something’s Gotta Give, the movie she did with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. Her kids lasted about five minutes before they shut it off. “They were like, ‘This is reprehensible. This is ethically dubious, and we’re out.’” But things change. Now her daughters sneak into her closet and steal her clothes. “For so long, it was like, ‘What are you wearing, mom? Why are you so uncool?’ And then, all of a sudden, I was like, ‘Oh, look at you. Look who’s coming in my closet.’”
Amanda Peet’s cancer diagnosis: What happened?
Amanda shared even more in her essay. She was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in the fall of 2025, just as both her parents were dying in different hospices on opposite sides of the country. For years, doctors told her she needed extra monitoring, so she saw a breast surgeon every six months. Per her New Yorker essay, six months ago, she went in for what she thought was a routine scan, but her doctor didn’t like the look of something on the ultrasound and wanted a biopsy. After that, her doctor said she’d personally take the sample to Cedars-Sinai pathology. “That’s when I knew,” Amanda wrote.They found a small tumor and needed an MRI to see how far it had spread. While she was getting her own tests, her dad’s health took a bad turn. She rushed to New York, but didn’t make it in time to say goodbye. When she returned to LA, her doctor called with the results: HER2-negative breast cancer.Now, according to Mayo Clinic, HER2-negative breast cancer occurs when cancerous cells in the breast don’t contain high levels of the protein human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2), which fuels cancer growth.“You’d think I’d just taken Ecstasy. I was happier than I’d been before the diagnosis,” Peet said. “But then, about ten minutes later, it hit me—I still needed the MRI, and that old terror came rushing back. Dr. K told me the radiologist would check my lymph nodes and look for any surprises on the left side. That’s when I realized: cancer doesn’t announce itself all at once. It comes in drips.”Peet said that the radiologist “didn’t see evidence of lymph-node involvement,” however, a “second mass” was found in the same breast and more tests were carried out to examine the cells. She added that the results showed that the second mass was “benign” and that she had stage I breast cancer, which required “a lumpectomy and radiation, not a double mastectomy or chemotherapy.”Once she knew the second tumor wasn’t cancer, she and her husband, David, decided it was time to tell their older daughters, Frances and Molly June.“My therapist told me I didn’t have to act tough or pretend I had all the answers,” Peet said, remembering what it was like to talk to her kids. “She said I’d be surprised by how much kids can handle, and that asking them to help out would actually make them feel useful.” Molly cried. Frankie, FaceTiming from her college quad, just covered her mouth and sat there, taking it in. She didn’t move until she realized the good part: it looked like I was stage I and wouldn’t need chemo.After a lot of anxiety and fear, Amanda revealed that she finally got her first clear scan in mid-January.
