Ten years after being diagnosed with cancer for the first time, former ‘Dancing with the Stars’ co-host Samantha Harris’ breast cancer has returned. On Wednesday, Harris posted a video on Instagram sharing the news while expressing gratitude for her support system in place.
“I have some health news that I need to share that I never thought that I would be sharing again in my lifetime, but I have a recurrence of breast cancer,” Harris, 50, said in the video clip. “And I feel so fortunate to have been able to guide, support and lead so many of you in ‘Your Healthiest Healthy’ community, and I will continue to do so, and I will fight on and I will be okay.”
Samantha Harris was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. (Getty Images)
“I’m so grateful for my family and my close friends, and as I lean on them, I also reach out to lean on you during this time, and I will continue to share more as my treatment plan unravels,” she continued. “I’ll see you soon.”
In another follow-up video posted on Saturday, Harris shared the steps leading up to her surgery day.
“It is surgery day, so stop number one is I have to get a surgical clip put into the breast to basically show the surgeon when he goes in where the cancerous tumor is, the cancerous tissue so that he knows what to take out,” Harris, who was preparing for a partial mastectomy surgery.
In 2014, Harris told People magazine that she had found a lump on her right breast. Tests later showed it was breast cancer, and she underwent a double mastectomy after hearing her treatment options.
“It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest,” she told the outlet at the time. “I was sick of feeling the way that I did in the days after the diagnosis. I knew I needed to take control.”
Harris co-hosted alongside Tom Bergeron for two seasons. (Getty Images)
The former co-host, who stood alongside longtime host Tom Bergeron from 2010 to 2012, isn’t the only ‘DWTS’ alum who’s been affected by cancer. In 2022, former pro Witney Carson opened up about nearly missing out on her ‘dream’ opportunity when she discovered she was diagnosed with melanoma, a form of skin cancer, weeks before she was set to arrive in Los Angeles in 2014.
‘DWTS’ alum Witney Carson opened up about her cancer diagnosis in 2022.
‘I finally got this call that was going to just skyrocket my career,’ she told People magazine at the time. ‘It was my dream.’ All of a sudden I get diagnosed with melanoma and, of course, being myself, I’m like, ‘It’s fine. I can still go on the show,’ she said of the season she starred alongside Cody Simpson.
The ‘DWTS’ vet noted she was ’embarrassed’ to reveal her diagnosis because she wanted people to think she was healthy.
Carson was diagnosed with melanoma.
I think I was embarrassed only in the fact that I was an athlete and I was supposed to be encompassing everything healthy and fit. I was supposed to be doing all the right things to be an athlete, and so it was embarrassing for me to be like, ‘Yes, I had, I was sick. I was literally sick,’ she said. ‘The producers didn’t know. My partner didn’t know. I wanted people to think I was perfectly healthy.’
Carson, who was diagnosed with skin cancer at 19, feels her use of tanning beds in high school might have been a contributor. Both her parents are also melanoma cancer survivors – genetics plays a role in melanoma.
