‘Today’ Show’s Jill Martin Gives Health Update Amid Cancer Journey and Divorce

Today Show contributor Jill Martin has been sharing her experience with breast cancer for over a year now, and she gave a sad but optimistic update on Wednesday’s episode of the podcast Making Space with Hoda Kotb. The 48-year-old is still undergoing treatment and is now divorcing her husband Eric Brooks as well. Still, Martin said she is “thriving.”

“Look what I’m doing. Operating with generosity and kindness and trying my best,” Martin said. “I mean, people are like, ‘How are you?’ I’m like, ‘Not great. I had cancer and I got divorced in a year. How would you be doing?’ But I’m thriving under the circumstances.”

Martin publicly announced her cancer diagnosis in July of 2023. She and Brooks married on Sept. 10, 2022 and news of their divorce broke on Sept. 5, 2024. Martin acknowledged that dealing with a divorce and cancer treatment at the same time was difficult, but said that she made a conscious choice not to wallow in the tragedy of it all. She said: “I had two choices in the fork of the road … one was to crawl under the covers, and nobody would have blamed me. Or I could move on dot com.”

As for the circumstances of the divorce, Martin was cautious, saying: “We’re in the middle of it. I wanna be respectful. I had, like, a beautiful love affair. But some stories, unfortunately, have a beginning, middle and end. And we both put the period on at this time. We want different things and are holding different things that are important to each of us. And they’re not right or wrong. They’re just different.”

Martin said that in a way, her experience with cancer treatment gave her the emotional skills and confidence to process the divorce. She listed the many treatments she has gone through so far, saying: “If I could get through that. I mean honestly, nothing scares me. It would take a lot more than that.”

Martin went through a cancer screening after she tested positive for the BRCA gene – a genetic marker that indicates a significantly higher risk for developing breast cancer or ovarian cancer. She said that she has had six surgeries since she was diagnosed, along with radiation treatment and chemotherapy. She said that she lost about 70 percent of her hair, and her mental health went to a dark place as well.

“There was a point where I called my oncologist and said, ‘What is the point? I’m suffering so much,’” Martin recalled. “It got to a point where I had really bad thoughts. So now that I’m back and I look like some version of myself… when I look in the mirror… she’s pretty. She’s just not me… And I now I love [my body] more than I liked it before.”