Busy Philipps Reveals Promise She Made to Daughter Following Brain Tumor Diagnosis

A little over a month after announcing her brain tumor diagnosis, Busy Philipps reveals the promise she made to her 18-year-old daughter, Birdie.

During her recent appearance on Today with Jenna & Friends, the actress opened up about receiving the diagnosis just months before Birdie’s high school graduation.

“My older daughter just turned 18 over the summer. She graduated from high school,” she explained. “So this was all happening in February, and my surgery was March 2. She actually was in boarding school, and she was home on a break when we found out and when I had the surgery, and she stayed an extra week.”

Philipps noted that navigating through the health crisis as a parent was “so hard,” especially during such an important time for Birdie.

“She’s in this moment in her life where her life is just starting, and I think all of a sudden being hit with the reality that something could be really, terribly wrong with her mom may be the scariest thing for any kid to confront,” she said.

Philipps then shared how she approached telling Birdie the news, which led to her big promise.

“I just kept saying to her, ‘You’re not in the movie where your mom dies the senior year of high school. I just promise you. You’re in the movie where your mom has a brain tumor and then is on a TV show,’” she recalled.

Philipps went public with her grade 2 oligodendroglioma diagnosis in late August. However, the doctors told her the news back in February. The actress underwent two brain surgeries between February and August.

She previously opened up about first finding out the news. “I was hyperventilating and trying to breathe.”

Philipps said Birdie was “kind of beside herself” and was “really, really scared and overwhelmed with emotion” following the news. However, the actress’s daughter, Cricket, was less alarmed by the diagnosis.

“Her reaction when I told her was like, ‘OK. You’re going to be fine?’ And I was like, ‘I’m totally going to be fine.’ And she’s like, ‘OK.’”