Kathy Griffin Gives Big Health Update Following Lung Cancer Diagnosis

Four months after she first revealed her stage 1 lung cancer diagnosis, Kathy Griffin announced Monday that she is cancer-free. The 61-year-old comedian shared the promising health update during a Monday night appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where she also opened up about learning she had cancer with the ABC late-night show’s host.

Griffin sent the audience into a round of cheers and applause when she sat down with Kimmel and announced, “I’m cancer-free.” Griffin first announced in August that she had been diagnosed with the disease, despite having never smoked, something she again mentioned when speaking about her cancer battle. She told Kimmel, “I don’t know why, I had a tumour, right? And I’ve never smoked, and it was in there for 10 years.” Griffin said that after the diagnosis, doctors “took it out and found it in another scan.”

When Griffin shared her diagnosis with fans in early August of this year, she was just hours away from heading into the operating room to have part of her left lung removed. The Emmy-winning comic told Kimmel that her doctor attempted to make a few jokes with her during the consultation as he explained the procedure. She recalled, “So I go in, and he’s like describing how they take half your lung out, and he goes, ‘It’s kind of a like a balloon.’ So, we do it laparoscopically and we poke it, then he goes, ‘And when we take it out, kind of looks like a used condom.’ And then he goes, ‘You can use that.’”

Following the procedure, a representative for the comedian shared the surgery was successful and Griffin was recovering. In the weeks and months that followed her diagnosis, Griffin continued to keep fans in the loop, candidly discussing her recovery, admitting that “this cancer surgery was a little more than I anticipated,” and poking fun at the “one thing that doesn’t suck about cancer.”

Now cancer-free, Griffin said she still has some recovering left to do. Speaking with Kimmel, the comedian addressed the change in her tone of voice, revealing that issues with her vocal cords during the procedure left her with a higher tone. She said, “it will heal, but I’m sort of enjoying it. I’m a good two octaves higher, I think… It might be. It’s higher than Mariah Carey, I know that.”