Five celebrities with secret cancer battles…as Elle MacPherson reveals she hid the disease for 7 years

Supermodel Elle MacPherson shocked fans with the announcement of her breast cancer diagnosis earlier this week — as well as her controversial decision to opt out of chemotherapy treatment.

But also surprising — for a woman who has spent most of her adult life in the public eye — is that MacPherson, now 60, kept her illness a secret for seven years.  

Many celebrities in the public eye, however, choose to keep their cancer battles private and separate from their careers. 

Others recovered from the disease decades a go, so rarely speak of their experience.  

Here, MailOnline reveals the celebrities that you may be surprised to learn have had cancer.

Zoolander actor, Ben Stiller opened up about his battle with prostate cancer in 2016, after keeping it private for two years. 

The 58-year-old revealed that he had no symptoms and no specific family history of cancer when his doctor found an ‘aggressive’ tumour during a routine test in 2014.

Following the advice of his doctor, he underwent surgery to remove the prostate, a walnut-sized gland that sits below the bladder, around the urethra in men, which cleared him of cancer. 

He admitted in an interview with Today in 2016 that he does suffer some of the common side effects of a prostatectomy, which sometimes include incontinence and issues with sexual function. 

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men, with more than 50,000 new diagnoses and 12,000 deaths annually.

In the US, the disease kills 26,000 men each year. 

Sofia Vergara 

Modern Family and new TV miniseries Griselda star Sofia Vergara only publicly discussed her cancer battle two decades after treatment. 

The actress, now 52, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the age of 28 after doctors discovered a lump in her neck during a routine checkup.

But she did not share this publicly until a telecast for Stand Up to Cancer in 2021.

The following year she shared a picture of herself that was taken in her first acting class after receiving treatment. 

In the post from 2022 she wrote: ‘At 28, ‘Cancer’ was not a word I expected to hear.’

‘It was just a routine checkup. But the doctors found a lump in my throat, and that word became part of my story.

‘I spent countless hours in radiation treatments, and, eventually, in surgery. Today, I get to call myself a cancer survivor.’

The thyroid is a gland in the front of the neck responsible for making hormones that control the way the body uses energy. Hormones produced by the thyroid impact nearly every organ in the body and control many of the body’s most important functions.

Thyroid cancer may not cause any symptoms at first but as the cancer grows it can cause swelling of the neck, voice changes, difficulty swallowing, a nodule that can be felt through the skin on the neck and pain in the neck and throat.

It’s most common in people in their 30s and those over the age of 60, with women up to three times more likely to develop it than men.

There are around 3,900 new cases in the UK every year and about about 44,020 in the US. 

Helen McCory

Peaker Blinders and Harry Potter star Helen McCory, swore her friends to secrecy as she battled cancer treatment while continuing to carry out charity work just weeks before her death aged 52.

The actress, who died from breast cancer in April 2021, appeared on TV to promote the Prince’s Trust only six weeks before she died. 

She also shared her secret struggle with ‘very, very few people’, according to Carrie Cracknell, who directed Helen McCrory in a stage production of Medea. 

McCory, who was married to fellow actor Damian Lewis since 2007 and shared two children with him, wanted to focus on her family and charity work, as well as her acting, rather than her illness.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world.

Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000.  

The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.

The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.

Louis Walsh 

Former X Factor star Louis Walsh also revealed he was diagnosed with a ‘rare’ type of blood cancer four years after the health scare in 2020. 

The 72-year-old discussed his health while starring on Celebrity Big Brother this year with Levi and Ekin-Su and confessed that no one knew he was sick. 

When asked by the pair how he spent lockdown he said: ‘I was sick, and I think nobody knew I was sick. I had cancer. A mild version, a rare one.’

He was diagnosed with Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia (also known as lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma), which is a rare form of low-grade lymphoma (a type of bone marrow cancer).

It is associated in most cases with the presence of an excessive amount of abnormal protein in the blood.

But he has since been given the all clear after receiving treatment in Dublin.  

Symptoms of the rare cancer include feeling fatigued, looking pale, bruising easily and weight loss, according to Macmillan. 

Around 350 people are diagnosed with the cancer in the UK every year, while it affects around 1,000 to 1,500 people in the US. 

Jonnie Irwin 

The A Place In The Sun star confirmed in November his lung cancer had spread to his brain after first being diagnosed with the disease in 2020. 

He passed away in February at the age of just 50.

But before his death he revealed how he kept his cancer battle a secret for two years to ‘pay the bills’ and look after his family. 

He told The Sun: ‘I had to live with it as a secret. It was really difficult living with such a massive cloud above me and pretending to everyone else.

‘For the first year and a half I could work. Unfortunately, one of the companies claimed they couldn’t insure and didn’t renew my contract. It left a massive hole in my income.

‘I felt like I’d been thrown on the scrapheap. They’d recruited within a week and then I could see some else doing my job.’

A cancer that has spread to another part of the body is called a secondary cancer or metastasis, according to Cancer Research UK. 

Not all lung cancers will spread, but if the cancer does spread there are certain parts of the body that it is more likely to go to, including the brain, bones and the liver. 

Headaches, seizures, vision and speech problems can all be signs of a brain tumour, according to the NHS. 

While a cough, getting out of breath and losing your appetite are all symptoms of lung cancer.