Actress Blythe Danner is speaking about her years-long battle with oral cancer, which is the same cancer that her director-producer husband Bruce Paltrow died from in 2002.
Danner, who is mother to actress Gwyneth Paltrow, was diagnosed with cancer in March 2018, People magazine reported.
The 79-year-old actresstold People, "Everyone is touched by cancer in some way, but it's unusual for a couple to have the same cancer," she said.
She said when she was diagnosed she remembers looking "up at heaven" to say to Bruce "Are you lonely up there?"
"It's a sneaky disease. But I'm fine and dandy now. And I'm lucky to be alive," she said.
Danner is an Emmy award-winning actress known for roles in "Meet the Parents" and the hit TV show "Will & Grace."
As Deadline reported, after the death of her husband and her own diagnosis, she started advocating for more research and funding for cancer working with the Oral Cancer Foundation which administers the Bruce Paltrow Oral Cancer Fund.
The fund said oral cancers have increased each year since 2007, with 54,000 people diagnosed with oral cancer in 2022.