‘I’M DEVASTATED’

‘Today’ Show’s Jill Martin Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Martin said tested positive for the BRCA gene—linked to a significantly higher risk of breast cancer—days before the diagnosis.

Today show correspondent Jill Martin revealed Monday that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in late June. “Of course I’m devastated,” the 47-year-old told People. “You hear the C-word and you think the worst. But after you hear the word and you absorb it, you then have to be your own best friend.” In remarkable timing, Martin said had just tested positive for the BRCA gene—the gene linked to a significantly higher risk of breast cancer—less than one week before her cancer diagnosis. She had already decided to undergo a pre-emptive double mastectomy as a result, but an MRI before the surgery showed that cancer had already developed. Martin said that she will be having a double mastectomy this week and, in a few months, “will also need my ovaries and fallopian tubes taken out,” to mitigate the now-higher possibility of ovarian cancer.