It's a diagnosis that "takes your breath away," says the journalist, but she's now helping other survivors find a way forward through stories.
Amy Robach has spent decades covering the stories that shape our world—but when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at 40 after having an on-air mammogram, her own life became the story. The veteran journalist—who previously worked for both NBC and ABC, including on Good Morning America and 20/20—is now amplifying the conversations around cancer that too often goes unsaid.
Since her diagnosis in 2013, Robach says she’s learned that breast cancer is “a storyline that keeps unfolding.” In her new Voices of MORE series sponsored by pharmaceutical company Novartis, Robach, now 52, makes room for discussions around important topics, such as the fear of recurrence that lingers long after treatment, the scars that change how you see yourself, and the way survivorship can shake even the most intimate parts of life—from identity to body image to fertility. And the topic couldn’t be more timely: recent data from a Novartis survey, called the Breast Health & Experience Index, found that 90% of breast cancer patients said they want people to see them, not just their diagnosis.
Speaking recently with The Healthy, Robach gets candid about the fear of believing her diagnosis was a death sentence…and the heartbreak of being told she was “out of the baby-making business.” She also opens up about the surprising way running marathons with her partner and podcast co-host, journalist T.J. Holmes, helped her reclaim trust in her body. It’s a side of breast cancer survivorship that Robach says we can’t afford to keep in the shadows.
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The Healthy by Reader’s Digest: Amy, your new series The Voices of More dives into raw conversations about life after breast cancer. What inspired you to share this deeply personal aspect of your own journey, and what are you hoping the takeaway is?
Amy Robach: This is about the power of our own voices and telling our stories, because they’re inspirational, they’re powerful, and they help us all live differently. I know that it has been an absolute honor to talk to breast cancer patients, whether they’re early stage or metastatic, about not just the diagnosis and how they found their cancer, but certainly how they live through treatment and what life is like after diagnosis. Because this is not a disease where once you’ve had your treatment, you’re done … This is a diagnosis that you live with for the rest of your life. This is a lifetime of fear of recurrence, which is a real fear that happens in every woman or every person who is diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Of those women and men who are diagnosed, one in nine will go on to have metastatic breast cancer [cancer that has spread beyond the breast]. So this is a real fear, and managing that fear and living with that fear, through treatment and after treatment, is a real thing.
The Healthy: Your series looks at reclaiming intimacy, self-worth, and identity after diagnosis. What was one of the most surprising or powerful stories that has stayed with you?
Amy Robach: When you hear about young women having breast cancer—metastatic breast cancer—it’s shocking. Growing up, at least I thought breast cancer was something that happened to older women. But now you have women of all ages, and especially women under the age of 50. For me, I was in my thirties when I got it. I was diagnosed at 40.
There are so many issues that are surprising. We don’t think about fertility. How it matters what your hair looks like. It matters what your skin looks like. It matters how you feel about your body, the scars you have. Having a double mastectomy is not just an “OK, I’m done.” This is an amputation—a double amputation. Some people have the opportunity for reconstruction and some people don’t, but you’re never going to look the way you did before. You have a lot of physical issues that affect the mental part of you.
It’s surprising for a lot of people because you just think, well, you’ve got to live, you beat the disease—and sure, that’s the most important part. But so many other parts of what make us women, what make us feel feminine, what make us feel desirable in our relationships, change drastically when you go through this. Then the treatment options—beyond surgery, beyond the diagnosis—change how you look. You aren’t the same. So it’s something that we have to talk about and lean on each other to get through.
The Healthy: What did you find most helpful during the darkest part of that period in your life?
Amy Robach: What I found most helpful was talking to other women who had been through it, who were ahead of me, who had been down that road. The first person I called was Robin Roberts, who I worked with at the time, and then Hoda Kotb, who I had just recently worked with. Both of these women were inspiring to me because I needed to hear from them that I was going to be okay, that I was going to get through it, that they were living, breathing examples of what life could look like after my diagnosis.
When I was diagnosed, I thought breast cancer was a potential—or almost certain—death sentence, that my life was going to be cut short. That fear is something I cannot describe. It takes your breath away, it keeps you up at night, it’s the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning. So to see an example of a woman who is not just surviving but thriving—and I know we overuse that word a lot—it’s really important that you’re not just existing, but that you’re actually having a quality life.
The Healthy: It feels like a powerful message to send, especially as more younger women are being diagnosed. What does your fitness and nutrition routine look like now, and how has it evolved since your diagnosis?
Amy Robach: I changed everything when I was diagnosed. I was always active. I was a good 10K-er. I liked the six-mile run at the most, but mostly two or three miles. But I kind of ate whatever I wanted, and I definitely probably drank more than I should have. That is an honest answer.
After diagnosis, it took me a while. I struggled mentally and physically with just getting my energy back, but also with getting my mind in the right space. It wasn’t until someone asked me to push myself to step up and try a half marathon that I had a whole new lease on life. I realized instead of fearing what my body had done to me, I could trust it, invest in it, and show just how powerful it could be. That helped me so much mentally.
So I’ve got six full marathons under my belt now, plus I can’t even tell you how many half marathons. I just ran the Stockholm Half Marathon, and it’s upped my game significantly. I started climbing mountains—I climbed Kilimanjaro for my five-year cancer anniversary with my daughters, my dad, my brother. Just getting my family and community involved in celebrating what our bodies can do.
From a nutritional standpoint, I cut sugar out of my life completely. So now I follow a keto lifestyle. I took a break for about a year, but still stayed low-carb, and for seven years now I’ve been keto. When I do have wine, I get a low-sugar wine. I’m very careful with what I put inside my body now.
The Healthy: What is one self-care ritual you refuse to skip, whether you’re traveling or at home?
Amy Robach: Running. I always travel with my running shoes—always. No matter where I am, no matter how cumbersome. They’re big, too, because they’re the long-distance ones, Nike Alphafly, and they take up so much space in my luggage. But I will make space. I’ll forego an extra outfit or some makeup to get my running shoes in there. They go with me everywhere. That’s my go-to self-care.
The Healthy: On your podcast Amy & T.J. with your partner T.J. Holmes, you’ve talked about possibly expanding your family through adoption. A lot of people explore fertility preservation before treatment. Can you talk about what that looked like for you when you got the diagnosis, and how cancer affected your thoughts on family planning?
Amy Robach: I was diagnosed at 40 and already had two daughters from a previous marriage. They were 7 and 10 at the time. When your doctor looks at you and says, “You are out of the baby-making business,” it’s devastating. I had a hormone-positive cancer, and I believe I had two weeks to decide if I wanted to try to freeze my eggs. It was always going to have to be a surrogate for me. I was never going to be able to be pregnant again given my cancer.
That was a devastating blow. And I know it might seem silly to someone who thinks, “You already have two healthy daughters and you’re 40 years old,” but it was really traumatizing when someone tells you you can’t and you no longer have an option. I had friends all around me having babies at 40, 42, 43, 44. To think that was over was traumatizing.
I ultimately decided not to freeze my eggs. I just didn’t want to go through the risk of the hormones that would have to be pumped into me. If I hadn’t had kids, I probably would have. But now I’m in the happiest, best relationship of my life. T.J. and I were talking on the podcast more theoretically—that when you find that person you’re supposed to be with, it’s natural to want to have a child with them. Adoption is an option for a lot of folks.
I think if I could go back, I would have frozen my eggs. But you have to make so many decisions quickly, and one decision influences the next. It’s something I wish I had more time to consider. Adoption and surrogacy are beautiful options, but also extremely expensive. When you have hormone-positive cancer, your options are limited and often costly.
The Healthy: Beyond the series, what projects or personal goals are you excited about this fall? What should we have on our radar?
Amy Robach: Right now T.J. is running the New York City Marathon. I’ve run a marathon every year for six years, and he’s trying to convince me to do it again because we just ran the Stockholm Half two weeks ago. I’m still on the fence. I do have my eyes set on London 2026, and T.J. and I are pretty much committed to running the Las Vegas Half Marathon in February—it sounds so fun because they shut down the Strip. I’m a big half-marathon girl now. We’re also excited for Thanksgiving with our girls. I don’t take those moments for granted anymore.
For daily wellness updates, subscribe to The Healthy by Reader’s Digest newsletter and follow The Healthy on Facebook and Instagram. Keep reading:
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- Clea Shearer Continues To Share Her Breast Cancer Journey: “I Was So Desperate for Information”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
