“The Young and the Restless” star Christian LeBlanc revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer over the summer, but he is now in remission.
The 65-year-old actor opened up about his battle with the blood cancer multiple myeloma in an interview with the New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV. LeBlanc told the outlet that viewers of the soap opera had alerted him to a sign of the disease after noticing a change in one of his eyes.
“The fans caught it,” the Daytime Emmy Award said. “I was getting people like, ‘Your eye’s a little Jim Carrey that way.'”
“The Young and the Restless” star Christian LeBlanc revealed that he was diagnosed with the blood cancer multiple myeloma in June. ( Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images)
LeBlanc shared that he was diagnosed in June at Providence St. John’s Center in Santa Monica, California. “I’d never spent a day in the hospital in my 65 years until this year,” he said.
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The North Carolina native, who plays Michael Baldwin in the show, told the outlet that he had begun experiencing symptoms of the disease while on set.
“They put my wedding ring on, Lauren and Michael’s wedding ring, and I put my hand down, and the ring fell off without friction,” LeBlanc recalled.. “I said, ‘Well, what an odd thing.’ My nose started bleeding on set. Sometimes this eye kind of got a little wonky, because there was a tumor in the sinus cavity.”
LeBlanc recalled that fans had alerted him after spotting a change in one of his eyes. (Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images)
LeBlanc recalled that he had visited his optometrist, who had advised him to consult a neuro-ophthalmologist, a doctor who specializes in the treatment of vision problems linked to the nervous system.
“My eye doctor just said, ‘You might go — your eye’s a little droopy — might go check it out with a neurological ophthalmologist, which I had never even heard of,” he remembered. “And so they found [the cancer], and there was a chance it was a very serious cancer. There were options. They didn’t know until after this surgery, but there was a tumor right here pressing on my optic nerve.”
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LeBlanc explained that the cancer may have progressed further if he had not had an eye exam. “It’s a very fast cancer, and that is the danger of it, but it’s also because the speed of which a cell reproduces is a signifier of cancer,” he said. “It also makes it very obvious it’s a cancer and easily attacked and easily spotted once you get in there.”
The actor shared that he is now in remission and will be returning to the show on the upcoming Thanksgiving episode. (Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty Images)
The “As the World Turns” alum recalled that he hadn’t realized that multiple myeloma was a “very common” cancer until he was diagnosed. “But it is such a well-researched cancer, and they have made so many huge steps with the taking the pain out of the chemo, making it more constructive, immunotherapies. But yeah, I had to deal with that,” LeBlanc said.
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LeBlanc revealed that he had lost 35 lbs in two months during his cancer battle, but he has been eating more to put some weight back on.
“They said, ‘Eat it like it’s your job,'” he said. The actor, who grew up in New Orleans, said that he “was raised to fulfill that promise.”
LeBlanc’s character on the soap opera, Michael Baldwin, also battled cancer in one of the storylines on the show. (Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)
“Easily done,” he added.
During his interview with WWL-TV, LeBlanc reflected on how life had imitated art as his character on “The Young and the Restless” also battled cancer in a storyline on the show.
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“It was interesting,” he said. “You play that that scene where you hear the word, just the word in a doctor’s office, ‘cancer.’ And I got to play that as Michael Baldwin.”
Now that he is in remission, LeBlanc will be making his return to the show on the Thanksgiving episode, which will air November 23.
Fox News Digital has reached out to LeBlanc’s representative for comment.
