Soap Opera Star Diagnosed With Colorectal Cancer

Days of Our Lives mainstay Suzanne Rogers is opening up about her cancer journey after being diagnosed with stage 2 colorectal cancer this summer.

The actress, who has appeared on the beloved daytime drama for the past 52 years as Maggie Horton, told TV Insider in an interview published Thursday that she was first diagnosed after feeling something “wasn’t quite right” with her health.

After undergoing a colonoscopy, MRI, PET scan and biopsy, Rogers was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. “[The doctor] said, ‘You have cancer and you have to start treatment,’” Rogers recalled. “It was all a shock. I mean, I think I was in a shock for several days because I take pretty good care of myself. But he said, ‘It’s a good thing you caught it in time.’”

Just three days after wrapping Days of Our Lives on June 13, Rogers started treatment, undergoing radiation and chemotherapy almost every day for six weeks. The show’s six-week summer break made her absence a little less conspicuous, which Rogers said was helpful, “because it gave me even more time to chill and to get myself healthy.”

Rogers leaned on her friend Sunie Ostermann and her on-screen daughter Linsey Godfrey (Sarah Horton) during that tough time. “It was scary,” she shared. “When I had to go see a doctor, one of them would go with me because you get to a point where once they say cancer, you don’t hear anything else. … I knew I could count on them, so it was a lovely experience on and off the set. We really feel like a family.”

Godfrey, a cancer survivor herself, suggested that Rogers let her tell a few people on set so that they could offer their support, and Rogers said that Mary Beth Evans {Kayla Johnson), Stephen Nichols (Steve Johnson), Greg Rikaart (Leo Stark) AnnaLynne McCord (Cat Greene), and her makeup artist at Days all reached out.

Producers also assured her that “the most important thing” was for her to get better, and that her role would be waiting for her when she was ready.

After completing her treatment on July 31, Rogers is now making her way back to set. “I’m feeling really good,” she shared. “I start back to work next week, so we’ll see how that goes. Now, I’m feeling anxious like I do any time I get scripts because I want to do my very best and you don’t want to hold up anybody. So that’s the only anxiousness I feel. It’s not because of my illness, let’s put it that way.”

“The biggest thing is that I was tired because that’s not like me,” she explained. “I have a lot of energy all the time, so it really kind of shook me thinking, ‘Am I going to get my energy back?’ And it seems like it’s coming back. It’s not 100% yet, but I feel better. Today I feel really good, and that’s happening more and more than the other way around, so I’m really happy about that.”

Because of her hiatus from filming, there will be a period of time in 2026 in which Maggie won’t be appearing on the show, but Rogers said it’s good for the audience to at least know why she was absent, as she’s heard rumors that she had retired or left the show. “I don’t want to upset anybody, but I want them to know what’s going on,” she said.

As for her health, Rogers said she has a positive prognosis and is feeling grateful. “It’s so funny because I used to worry about some silly things,” she reflected. “And when you go through this, it kind of takes you a while to say, ‘OK, well, this is what I have, and I will do my very best to fight it and to get through it.’ And that’s what I did. The prayers and the good wishes from my friends and my family helped me stay positive and stay on top of it and beat this.”