Actress Nicole Eggert says that beyond the physical toll of fighting breast cancer, she faced a financial strain that few people talk about openly.
Eggert, 54, best known for “Baywatch” and “Charles in Charge,” was diagnosed with stage 2 cribriform carcinoma breast cancer in December 2023. Two years later, she learned her status was “NED,” meaning no evidence of disease. But getting there came at a steep cost, she told Fox News Digital.
“I’m a 100% single parent,” Eggert said. “One of my daughters is an adult, so she is very self-independent, and she does great, but I do have a teenager still at home … I have that responsibility, and then I have all the household and homemaker, head of household responsibilities and then the cost of what this diagnosis brings, which is a lot … really you can’t even wrap your head around it.”
Eggert said the expenses kept piling up as she worried about providing for her family while unable to work.
“In my line of work, I couldn’t commit to being on any kind of production because I’m gonna be in treatment and in and out of treatment … three-to-five at least days a week,” she said. “So, it’s not like it’s work from home kind of work.”
“I had to completely come to the realization that I wasn’t gonna have income, and yet the bills don’t stop, and the teenagers still need their things, and life needs their things and the car still needs the gas, and you know, all of it,” she added.
Still, Eggert said that once she stepped back and considered what she was facing, the money worries lost some of their weight.
“It’s sort of like, well, ‘Ah, I’m alive.’ Then, you know, if you have any kind of financial strain, it’s like, ‘Well, at least you’re alive to deal with it,'” she said. “At least you are alive where you can go out and fix it.”
“So there’s that part too, where suddenly you’re like, ‘Wow, whatever. It’s just it’s just money.’ And that comes and goes. So, you know, it’s ebb and flow of life,” she said.
A rare diagnosis and two surgeries
Eggert was diagnosed in December 2023 after experiencing unexplained weight gain and pain in her left breast. She underwent a mastectomy soon after. She said she had originally wanted a double mastectomy, but her doctor advised that removing just one breast would let her start treatment sooner and spare her immune system a bigger hit, so she agreed. More than a year later, in August 2025, she had her other breast removed along with reconstructive surgery.
Eggert said leaning on her community was essential throughout the process.
“You really have to find your community, and you really have to be OK with asking for help or asking other people how they do it, and getting tips and tricks and just all the information you can get,” she said. “That’s why these conversations are just so, so important and so necessary. Because what else would you do?”
Speaking out during Breast Cancer Awareness Month
As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Eggert partnered with Novartis and discussed her experience on the Voices of MORE podcast with Amy Robach and Dr. Helen Coons.
“If we keep talking about these things, it becomes so much easier to talk about, and maybe we don’t feel like we have to hide things anymore because in the past it’s not … it’s kind of been a taboo topic,” she said. “And now I think more and more women are becoming more comfortable to discuss what their journey looks like, what it feels like, how it’s gone for them.”
Looking ahead, Eggert said she’s eager to return to work and daily life with a changed outlook.
“I also am really looking forward to stepping back into life not having to be in treatment or in the treatment facility with this newfound power and fearlessness that I have, and this new appreciation for life that I have, and it’s like this second chance at life,” she said. “I know that that’s so cliche, but it’s to jump back in with all of these crazy changes that have happened in the past two years, three years. There’s been very, very big changes inside myself.”
“So to be able to now go back into life and get back into the workforce and get back into doing things I enjoy with this new mindset, it’s exciting. It’s exciting!” she added.
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