Actress Busy Philipps has disclosed that she secretly underwent surgery after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. The star, best known for her roles in Dawson's Creek and White Chicks, had two life-saving procedures to remove the growth.
Speaking to People magazine, Philipps, 47, said: 'I'm grateful that I'm alive,' adding that it has been 'the weirdest six months of my life.' After going for a scan, she recalled the doctor telling her: 'This is a real tumour, and it's inside your brain. And Busy, it's got to come out,' which led to her 'hyperventilating and trying to breathe.'
Diagnosis and delay
The Cougar Town actress was diagnosed with grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare slow-growing tumour often found in people aged between 30 and 50, in February. She had been forced to postpone her original appointment due to a blizzard in New York City weeks before.
Her scan on February 12 took place just one day after her Dawson's Creek co-star James Van Der Beek died of colon cancer. The news also came just weeks before Philipps was due to start filming her upcoming legal drama Cupertino, meaning she had to tell her daughters Birdie, 18, and Cricket, 13, about her diagnosis.
Family reaction
Sharing how her children digested the news, Philipps said her eldest, Birdie, was 'kind of beside herself and really, really scared and overwhelmed with emotion.' She told her: 'Birdie, you're just not in the movie where your mom dies your senior year of high school. That's just not the movie that you're in. I promise you.'
Cricket, however, asked: 'Okay. You're going to be fine?' and Philipps replied, 'I'm totally going to be fine,' to which Cricket said, 'Okay.'
Second surgery and recovery
Following the first surgery, Philipps thought she could move on to focus on filming Cupertino. But in April, an appointment with her dermatologist led to a heartbreaking discovery. 'She's like, "That doesn't look right. I'm not going to touch it….Can I take a picture of it and will you send it to your surgeons right now?"…And I did and they immediately were like, "That doesn't look good",' she recalled.
Doctors later discovered she had an infection in the incision from the first procedure, which meant she needed surgery again. 'The second surgery really threw me. I just felt like I was back to square one, and I was really, really upset,' Philipps explained.
Fortunately, she has since been told there is a 'really great chance this may not occur', and she has found a positive out of the situation. Referring to her doctor, Philipps revealed: 'She said, "Busy, you have been saying for the past two years, My brain feels broken." And she was right. I have. I've been saying this for the last few years. . . . I wasn't consciously aware that anything was really wrong, but there was something that was misfiring. Like, I could not get a handle on it. My brain does not feel broken anymore.'
Philipps rose to fame starring in Freaks and Geeks before landing a role as Audrey in hit teen drama Dawson's Creek alongside Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson. She has also entertained fans in Cougar Town, the comedy series starring Courteney Cox, while some of her more raucous roles have included the Wayans brothers' blockbuster comedy White Chicks. Philipps shares her daughters with ex-husband Marc Silverstein, whom she divorced in 2021.
