Busy Philipps is opening up about the reality of parenting through a health crisis.

During an Oct. 14 appearance on Today with Jenna & Friends, the actress discussed her recent brain tumor diagnosis and the emotional conversations she had with her two daughters. Philipps shares Birdie, 18, and Cricket, 13, with her ex-husband Marc Silverstein.

Making a Promise to Her Daughter

Philipps found out about the grade 2 oligodendroglioma in February and had the tumor removed on March 2. At the time of the diagnosis, her oldest daughter Birdie was home on a break from boarding school.


“My older daughter just turned 18 over the summer. She graduated from high school,” Philipps shared on the talk show. “So this was all happening in February, and my surgery was March 2. She actually was in boarding school, and she was home on a break when we found out and when I had the surgery, and she stayed an extra week.”

“She’s in this moment in her life where her life is just starting,” Philipps said. “I think all of a sudden being hit with the reality that something could be really, terribly wrong with her mom may be the scariest thing for any kid to confront.”

Philipps, who first shared her diagnosis publicly in an August People interview, said Birdie was “beside herself” and “overwhelmed with emotion.” To help ground her, Philipps made a very specific promise.

“I just kept saying to her, ‘You’re not in the movie where your mom dies the senior year of high school. I just promise you,’” she continued. “‘You’re in the movie where a brain tumor and then is on a TV show.’”

Two Very Different Reactions

Her youngest daughter, Cricket, took a decidedly different approach to the news.

“Her reaction when I told her was like, ‘Okay. You’re going to be fine?’” Philipps said. “And I was like, ‘I’m totally going to be fine.’ And she’s like, ‘Okay.’”

Philipps added that her own initial reaction was far less calm. “I was like hyperventilating and trying to breathe,” she recalled of first hearing the diagnosis.

The actress ultimately underwent surgery just weeks before she was set to begin filming the new legal procedural Cupertino.



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