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Baywatch star Nicole Eggert diagnosed with breast cancer aged 51

Updated

The actress, who also starred in 'Charles In Charge', was diagnosed with stage 2 cribriform carcinoma in December

Nicole Eggert at the Baywatch reunion dinner in 2010.
Nicole Eggert at the Baywatch reunion dinner in 2010.EL MUNDO

Nicole Eggert has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The 51-year-old actress — who is known for starring as Summer Quinn on Baywatch in the 1990s — was informed that she was suffering from stage two cribriform carcinoma in early December 2023, but had initially mistaken her symptoms to be signs of the menopause until she found a lump.

She told People: "It really was throbbing and hurting. I immediately went to my general practitioner and she told me I had to immediately go get it looked at. But the problem was I just couldn't get an appointment. Everything was booked. So I had to wait until the end of November to get it done. "This journey's been rough for me. This hasn't been a breezy sale through life.

"I always read inspirational quotes and corny stuff, but it gets me through."

The former Charles in Charge star — who has Dilyn, 25, with ex-Justin Herwick as well as 12-year-old Keegan from a different relationship — needs to have surgery, but is determined to fight the disease for the sake of her children, especially her youngest.

She said: "I can definitely feel it. It's there. It needs to be taken out. So it's just a matter of do I have to do treatment before the surgery or can they perform the surgery and then I do the treatment after. I have panics where I'm like, just get this out of me. You sit there and it's in you and you're like, every second that passes and it's inside of me. It's growing, and you're just like, you just want it out.

"[Dilyn's] an adult, but I have a 12-year-old at home where I'm the only caregiver. I have no family. I have nothing. It immediately made me realize, there's just no succumbing to this. This is something I have to get through. This is something that I have to beat. She needs me more than anything and anybody."