Ami Brown’s doctors are clearing the air when it comes to rumors that the Alaskan Bush People star faked her cancer diagnosis.
In a joint statement to PEOPLE just six months after news broke that the Brown family matriarch was in remission, her doctors at UCLA Medical Center are addressing her stage 3 lung cancer diagnosis and rumors that she was faking the disease for the sake of reality TV.
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“Amora Brown was diagnosed with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer in April 2017,” the statement reads. “Treatment for her cancer included a four-month course of chemotherapy with radiation. Her disease responded well to the treatment, and, according to her UCLA oncologist Dr. Deborah Wong, she is now in remission.”
“Although her most recent scans show no evidence of cancer, Amora will continue to be monitored closely by her medical team over the next several months,” the statement concluded.
Brown had first been diagnosed with the late-stage cancer in 2017 and was given only a 3 percent chance of survival. She was declared “cancer-free” in August following numerous chemotherapy and radiation treatments that left her weak and frail.
The disease’s low survivability rate and the sudden declaration that she was cancer free led some fans to conclude that the diagnosis had been staged in an effort to up viewership for the Discovery Channel series, which has long been surrounded in speculation that it is solely scripted and not true reality TV.
Speaking to Radar Online, Discovery Executive Vice President Laurie Goldberg addressed the rumors, stating that “Ami’s battle with cancer is very real” and that “it is just disgusting that anyone would say her cancer is not real or that it was created for the show.”
Brown’s cancer battle, which has been documented on the series, eventually forced the Brown family to uproot their lives in “Browntown” and settle on a 435-acre property in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington State, which they have christened North Star Ranch, as she continues to require frequent checkups. The move, however, is suiting the family well.
“This is what we always wanted but just couldn’t have up north,” her husband, Billy Brown, has said of their relocation, which sees the Brown children living throughout the vast property in teepees and trailers. “Alaska beat the crud out of me.”
Alaskan Bush People Season 9 premieres Sunday, March 3 at 10 p.m. ET on Discovery.
