Fw: Suzanne Somers Reveals She Has Breast Cancer ~ Transcript from Larry King

[Guest guest]

From: " Ilena Rose " <ilena@...>

Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 12:48 AM

Subject: Suzanne Somers Reveals She Has Breast Cancer ~ Transcript from

Larry King

> http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0103/28/lkl.00.html>

>

> Larry King Live

>

> Suzanne Somers Reveals She Has Breast Cancer

> Aired March 28, 2001 - 9:00 p.m. ET

>

> THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY

> BE UPDATED.

>

> LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, an exclusive Suzanne Somers goes public, with a

> very private matter, breaking her silence about tabloid headlines and

> setting the record straight.

>

> KING: We begin with Suzanne Somers. This was arranged late this afternoon,

> and, the result of this headline in the new issue of " Enquirer, " called

> Surgery Secret Behind Fitness Queen's Body; Suzanne Somers Plastic Surgery

> Scandal. Thigh Master Beauty Caught Leaving Lipoclinic. You have never

> seen this, right?

>

> SUZANNE SOMERS, ACTRESS: Well, I saw the black and white fax of it, but I

> haven't seen it all in full color.

>

> KING: And, you have stayed silent for a couple days.

>

> SOMERS: Well, when stuff like that comes out, you hope it will go away. So

> I didn't give it any energy. And it doesn't deem to be going away. KING:

> What could be more embarrassing, for a person pitching fitness: do this,

> work my machine, follow my diet. And we find you leaving a liposuction

> clinic.

>

> SOMERS: Right.

>

> KING: Meaning that it looks fraudulent. What happened?

>

> SOMERS: Well, I chose your show to come on tonight to talk about something

> that is very hard for me to talk about, that I have never told anyone. In

> the last year I have been battling and surviving breast cancer, and I was

> in that clinic, and it all has to do with my breast cancer.

>

> But it just, you know -- I have had such an honest relationship with the

> American public. I mean, I have written books on alcoholism, and blending

> families, and they have been with me on my ups and downs and sides. And

> this was just one of those things -- I think the most shocking words I

> ever thought, I never thought, I would ever in my life hear someone say to

> me that you have breast cancer. And it was -- it has been so...

>

> KING: How did you first hear of this?

>

> SOMERS: Oh, my press agent sent it through the fax and said...

>

> KING: And your press agent didn't known about the breast cancer or did

they?

>

> SOMERS: Yeah they did. They kid.

>

> KING: Your husband.

>

> SOMERS: My husband, my family, just, people. I was trying to keep it

quiet...

>

> KING: What was the clinic you were leaving?

>

> SOMERS: It is the Lasky Clinic here.

>

> KING: Plastic surgery?

>

> SOMERS: Yes. That is where people go to...

>

> KING: They have liposuction.

>

> SOMERS: Nipped and tucked and lifted.

>

> KING Would you tell us what you had done there?

>

> SOMERS: What I had done had to do with my breast cancer. And when I was in

> radiation, for six weeks, it blew out all my hormones, and, burned the top

> of my stomach, and...

>

> KING: : They had to do grafts of some kind or...

>

> SOMERS: No, you know, it is so...

>

> KING: : It's hard to talk about, but at least it gets it straight.

>

> SOMERS: It is hard to talk about. It is -- have you ever seen me at loss

> for words? I have never been at a loss for words.

>

> KING: I wasn't a mastectomy.

>

> SOMERS: No, no, no, no. I was able to save my breast, and...

>

> KING: You were treated.

>

> SOMERS: They did a nice job.

>

> KING: You were treated; radiation?

>

> SOMERS: Radiation, and I -- see I had a mammography; my annual mammography

> and this was something...

>

> KING: : This was a year ago?

>

> SOMERS: No. In April -- last April. And this is something women should

> know. I had my mammography, like I go every year. Because my sister has

> breast cancer, and, so I have been very diligent about it and I went to

> have this annual mammogram, and he said, you are fine, I see nothing. I

> thought I didn't think so.

>

> I was getting dressed and the doctor knocked on the door and he said you

> know, you have very cystic breasts; there are lumps and bumps all over the

> place; I got this new, state-of-art ultrasound machine, I paid half a

> million dollars for it, why don't we put you on that?

>

> I said OK. And I got on, and, with that machine, they found a tumor, 2.4

> centimeters, which is fairly large, that was hidden deep in my breast and

> did not -- was not detected by the mammogram.

>

> KING: Amazing machine.

>

> SOMERS: Amazing. The machine saved my life; the doctor said that at this

> size, by next year, if I had waited until my annual next year, he said it

> probably would have been too late, so I mean my life was saved because of

> this machine.

>

> KING: : What was the treatment?

>

> SOMERS: It -- just -- they -- do I have to say?

>

> KING: Was their surgery involved? Radiation involved?

>

> SOMERS: Yes.

>

> KING: You did not lose a breast.

>

> SOMERS: I did not lose a breast. They had to remove part of one, and then

> take the fat from the bottom of that breast and fill it up right.

>

> KING: OK -- that's not -- that is not -- what's important to me is why you

> were at the clinic; that is where they took the picture.

>

> SOMERS: Right.

>

> KING: They didn't bother to check with anyone; they just presumed that you

> are coming out of that clinic it's liposuction?

>

> SOMERS: Who knows? Who knows how they get their information, and...

>

> KING: You would think would you have a heck of a lawsuit here. I mean, you

> are in the business.

>

> SOMERS: Right.

>

> KING: Of diet and weight loss.

>

> SOMERS: Right. Right. The thing is, my program works -- you have seen me

> -- I have been on your show since I have had breast cancer; I never

> mentioned to it you. My body is always the same. But I did have to have

> something done to the other part of my body. And -- to even things out.

>

> KING: The Lasky Clinic was correcting or fixing something that was done in

> another place; right?

>

> SOMERS: Right.

>

> KING: The Lasky Clinic does do surgery; they don't do breast cancer.

>

> SOMERS: Right.

>

> KING: What was your first reaction on hearing you had this?

>

> SOMERS: I was in such shock. I'm very strong, and I was in such shock,

> because I have always taken care of myself, and, I just thought, it would

> never happen to me, but I think that is what everybody thinks; it won't

> happen to them. And, what's interesting, is what you learn about yourself

> when you are diagnosed with cancer. And cancer is not for sissies.

>

> KING: : What did you learn first?

>

> SOMERS: How strong I am. And, it took a couple of days of being shocked

> and then, as though I went to war, and, I gathered the doctors and I

> started hearing the common course of treatment. And as I'm hearing the

> common course of treatment, I -- I don't want to lose my hair, but that

> was the least of my worries was losing my hair. But I -- I don't like what

> that drug does to people. What I have seen...

>

> KING: Chemotherapy.

>

> SOMERS: Chemotherapy. I have seen people under treatment, there is, you

> know, I know it helps people. I know it helps.

>

> KING: But it works for breast cancer, right? I mean...

>

> SOMERS: It does, but I decided to find alternative things to do. And...

>

> KING: Knowing you, you would.

>

> SOMERS: I would. And because I have done so much work in my books about

> hormones, and that hormonal balance is why people gain or lose weight,

> and, it was my belief that a balanced environment of hormones prevents

> disease. And the first thing they said to me, we are taking of off all

> hormones. I said no, I'm going to continue taking my hormones, which is

> the first thing against the common course...

>

> KING: : You went against convention.

>

> SOMERS: Then I didn't want chemotherapy.

>

> KING: Let me break it right there. We will come right back with Suzanne

> Somers. Don't go away.

>

> (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: This article in the " Enquirer " says that you were

> looking to promote a new book that you just had come out, " Eat Great, Lose

> Weight, " that was your earlier book.

>

> SOMERS: That was my...

>

> KING: You've got a new one coming, " Eat, Cheat and Melt the Fat Away " you

> wanted to look your best. So, you went into this clinic for lipo. You went

> with your husband. You went in at 7:50 in the morning. Clinic opened at

> 8:00. The fat was removed, and you were suctioned from your abdomen, upper

> back and hips.

>

> Two-and-a-half-hour operation, spent a couple of hours. Left with bandages

> and girdle-like garments to help reduce swelling. Departed through the

> clinic's back door. Husband parked as close as he could to the back door.

> Nurse helped you out. Your publicist said it was a mole. Someone said that

> shouldn't have said that, right?

>

> SOMERS: Well, you know, when " The Enquirer " first called, I said just tell

> them it's a cancerous mole that I had removed, and then they said, no, we

> know that she did that two years ago. So somebody in there was feeding

> them information. It's just...

>

> KING: Also said you were dressed, and the cover looks like you were

> dressed, in dark clothes...

>

> SOMERS: I was.

>

> KING: .. and they said it was 60 degrees.

>

> SOMERS: But, you know, it was raining and February here, and it was cold

> and I was 6:30 in morning and I live at the beach, and it's cold and I put

> a coat on. Probably, I shouldn't have put the sock hat on, but going into

> that clinic, you don't -- you know, it's a marked clinic. There have been

> other celebrities that come and go from there that have been photographed,

> so I stuck this sock hat on, which makes me look like burglar, I know.

>

> KING: In retrospect, why didn't you announce it? A lot of people did? Say,

> you know, I've got this. I'm going for treatment.

>

> SOMERS: Because I'm not far enough away from it yet. Because I'm not even

> a year away from it, and...

>

> KING: Did ask you them not to print this? What did they say?

>

> SOMERS: Well, that's their business, you know, that's what they're doing.

> You know, I thought about it. I haven't -- I have been so upset about

> this, because...

>

> KING: Well, sure.

>

> SOMERS: ... because what it does is erode the trust that I have with all

> these people. There are over two million people on my program, and I -- I

> just wanted to get far enough away from it. And then I was -- been lying

> in bed the last few nights, and now the magazines are picking it up and

> calling it Thighgate.

>

> And then Ritter did some really low-class joke on the morning show,

> and Stern just picked up on it, and each day it's like a stab in my

> heart. And then I thought maybe -- maybe you know, we all have a higher

> power that we understand, and my higher power as I understand it, maybe is

> pushing me before I'm ready to come out and say that I had breast cancer,

> and I think because of the -- the treatment that I have chosen for myself,

> against the will of my doctors, and that I really feel, I really feel that

> I'm licking this and I have found another medicine from Europe that when I

> started taking it, it was illegal here, but it's now just been legalized,

> but it's a homeopathic, but it's...

>

> KING: Can you tell us the treatment you're taking?

>

> SOMERS: The treatment is called Iscador. Now, I just want to say that this

> is what I'm doing for me. I'm not telling anybody else to do this, but I

> found in the Burton Goldberg cancer handbook, Iscador chemo...

>

> KING: Sounds like the man's name.

>

> SOMERS: ... it does. Jewish. That chemotherapy -- with chemotherapy, you

> have a 98 percent chance that it won't reoccur. It said with Iscador, you

> have a 98 percent chance that this won't reoccur, but there are no side

> effects with Iscador and it was found by the famed homeopath Rudolph

> Steiner. They've been using is in Europe since the 1920s...

>

> KING: Is it a pill?

>

> SOMERS: I inject myself.

>

> KING: In the breast?

>

> SOMERS: No, I inject myself in my stomach every day.

>

> KING: How long?

>

> SOMERS: For five years.

>

> KING: Every day for five years. And did something go wrong that sent to

> you to the Lasky Clinic?

>

> SOMERS: I just physically, I -- I needed to correct something.

>

> KING: They made an adjustment with regard to this.

>

> SOMERS: Yes.

>

> KING: But you didn't have liposuction taken out of your thighs as reported

> here or did you?

>

> SOMERS: They -- you know, they never get it right. I mean, they had -- I

> was in there for a few hours, but they give you anesthetic and when I came

> out, you know, I -- if you see that picture, I'm smiling. I was stoned. I

> was going, good-bye, you're all so wonderful. I looked like that village

> idiot in there. The thing -- I just want to finish about the Iscador

> because there are a lot of people with cancer who -- I don't want to lead

> anybody astray. I don't know if this has worked for me or not.

>

> KING: You don't know yet?

>

> SOMERS: We won't know. That's why I was waiting for this because what

> really wanted to do was wait my five years, and then come on here and say,

> I got to tell you something, that there is another course. I don't know. I

> don't know if what I'm doing.

>

> It feels to me like the right thing to do, I have continued with my

> hormones, which they say not to do. I haven't taken the after-care drugs

> that they prescribe in this country because the main drug that most women

> are on in this country, I -- again I looked it up. You know, I'm research

> oriented, and there is a 10 percent better chance that it won't reoccur

> with the after-drug, but there is a 40 percent chance that you will get

> coronary heart attack, stroke and pulmonary embolism.

>

> Plus, you'll be depressed for five years, and I thought these are really

> five important years of my life. So, I just gathered my doctors, and I

> worked so closely with Schwarzbein, who is -- you know, I've been

> working with on the books, and after I told her what I decided to do, the

> course that I decided to do, she said, I couldn't say this, it's up to you

> to make your own decision. This is your life, and this is your body, but

> I've thought about this, nothing else, for the last two weeks, and what I

> came to was that if I were in your shoes, I would do exactly the same

> thing.

>

> KING: We'll be right back with more of Suzanne Somers on this edition of

> LARRY KING LIVE. Don't go away.

>

> (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

>

> KING: It goes without saying that you should follow your doctors. I don't

> know why we -- follow what your doctor says if you have breast cancer and

> don't go on tangents.

>

> SOMERS: And I agree, too. What I'm saying, I really want to stress this,

> this is what I have chosen to do for myself. Nobody told me to do it.

> Nobody...

>

> KING: Just because for fear of baldness?

>

> SOMERS: No, I...

>

> KING: Put a wig on.

>

> SOMERS: Because -- because if what I'm taking is effective, how much

> better it is than all the side effects that come...

>

> KING: What if it isn't, though? Then you're putting off something that

> could hurt you. You're rolling a little dice.

>

> SOMERS: But we are -- we are just monitoring. Every three months I'm

> getting a mammogram in that breast now, and we are just really...

>

> KING: So, if anything were to go you'd in for...

>

> SOMERS: ... on top of it. We'll know right away, and there are marker

> tests and things that you can take.

>

> KING: Can you, without -- I don't want to invade your privacy, but they're

> saying it was liposuction, and if you had full liposuction that would

> affect your career and your credibility, basically, what happened at the

> clinic?

>

> SOMERS: They did do some liposuction, and it was just to even things out.

>

> KING: So, it was not done for -- to make you look to promote a book?

>

> SOMERS: You've seen -- I mean...

>

> KING: Was it done on your thighs? On your hips?

>

> SOMERS: I have a nice body.

>

> KING: Was it done for figure or was it done because you have...

>

> SOMERS: I wanted to -- I felt -- I felt...

>

> KING: Awkward?

>

> SOMERS: I felt disfigured. KING: So, it was for the disfigurement?

>

> SOMERS: I wanted -- yes.

>

> KING: And it was done in one area; right? It wasn't like thighs and rear

> and hips to make you slim?

>

> SOMERS: You know...

>

> KING: All right. if you don't want to -- I just...

>

> SOMERS: It's -- I'm so uncomfortable. I -- it just feels like -- I just

> feels like I don't have to tell -- you know.

>

> KING: Is this headline wrong?

>

> SOMERS: Yes.

>

> KING: You did not have what we consider the standard liposuction?

>

> SOMERS: I had some liposuction, and it's for what I told you.

>

> KING: For the cancer.

>

> SOMERS: Right.

>

> KING: OK. It was not...

>

> SOMERS: The whole reason I was in there -- my book was not even on my

> mind. The whole reason that I went in there is because of -- of -- I was

> affected by the radiation and what happened to me on the medication, and

> having cancer. Cancer -- cancer throws everything off when you're in

> treatment...

>

> KING: Did you have -- do you have any idea who leaked this?

>

> SOMERS: Somebody must have paid somebody. I mean, they knew when I was

> coming and they knew when I left. And they were there. And I didn't even

> think to look around.

>

> KING: Once you got the call from the Inquirer, should you have then,

> before they came out, gone public with the breast cancer.

>

> SOMERS: Probably, but I just really thought -- I had no idea it'd be a

> cover, and I thought it would just go away. I thought it would be one of

> those little nuisance stories and it would go away. And so that was

> probably a wrong call on my part but, again, I have been waiting, I

> probably eventually would have gone public with this when I felt safer

> about it, when I was farther away from it. I -- it's, you know, my skin is

> still not back to normal and things, you know.

>

> KING: That's part of this method? That goes with this...

>

> SOMERS: Radiation burns your skin, and, it burns the top of your digestive

> tract.

>

> KING: Has this doubly affected the story for you now?

>

> SOMERS: This is...

>

> KING: I mean, it's bad enough.

>

> SOMERS: I died inside when this came through my fax machine. I just died

> inside, and it is so humiliating, and...

>

> KING: Not humiliating to have breast cancer.

>

> (CROSSTALK)

>

> KING: Humiliating that the public would think that you are fraudulent.

>

> SOMERS: I looked like a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in there.

>

> Yes, and, I really believe I have helped a lot of people. I am on the

> lecture circuit, and I have told them the truth. And that is what really

> bothered me, was people thinking, " Well, you know, she tells us to eat

> like this, but then she goes and has it all sucked out. " And, I eat like

> that.

>

> I coined the phrase " Somersizing. " I have this incredible book coming out,

> " Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away. " This how I live my life.

>

> KING: If you wouldn't (UNINTELLIGIBLE) people would have seen it. I think

> you have been so public, yes.

>

> SOMERS: Right. And I was on your show. I was at the Fire and Ice Ball,

> they photographed me, when was that, that was...

>

> KING: How long ago?

>

> SOMERS: That was before they, you know, February 20th was when I did go

> into the clinic. Fire and Ice Ball was before that. I was in a skinny

> tight gown, I've been out in public. I'm not fat.

>

> KING: So, if you needed lipo someone would have seen it. Someone would

> have said, " She's gained weight. "

>

> SOMERS: Chunky, so I have worked hard to have a nice body at this age. And

> it's just -- aaagh.

>

> KING: We're going to take a break, come back, one more segment with

> Suzanne Somers and then Joan Rivers and we will ask what now, what's ahead

> for her. Don't go away.

>

> (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

>

> KING: You got a book coming in two weeks. You got 350,000 first print.

> You're going on a book tour.

>

> SOMERS: Yes.

>

> KING: You think this is going to hurt it?

>

> SOMERS: Well, I hope -- you know, now people know why I did what I did.

> And, you know, there is shame with breast cancer. I don't know why.

>

> KING: Why? It's not your fault?

>

> SOMERS: Somehow, that was my first reaction that it was my -- what did I

> do? And yet, you know, I keep thinking was it, you know, is there some

> link with childhood abuse? Why do my sister and I have it? Or was it

> because in the '60s, so many of us were taking that high dose of estrogen

> in birth control pills, and you go through all this in your mind, and then

> I just always have to turn it over, you know.

>

> I really, really feel that I have licked this. I really do.

>

> KING: You do?

>

> SOMERS: I really feel like I'm on the other side. I feel like my life was

> saved by that machine. I feel that maybe, because I'm always out

> delivering the message, maybe that, you know, it's out of my control, that

> this was something I was supposed to have.

>

> KING: How did your husband handle it?

>

> SOMERS: He, we have been together for 33 years. I think, I think it rocked

> his world. I think that the two of us really -- it was very intense. But

> he stood behind me, and any choice that I made, he backed me up. When the

> doctors would, you know, disagree, he would say, " It is her life and her

> body, and I stand behind her. "

>

> I believe in five years, when I am free of this, that I can come back here

> and tell people what I did, and that I can offer another option. That is

> what I feel.

>

> KING: What did you do with the fear?

>

> SOMERS: I got mad. I visualized, I visualized inside my tumor that there

> was this little guy in there. And every time he would try to step out of

> the tumor I would say you get back in there. And I had this anger about

> the tumor, not about having cancer, because I think there is a reason for

> everything.

>

> I just never thought it would happen to me. And, I thought, how ironic,

> all these years, that this thing, this sex symbol thing has circled around

> my head, that I have always felt so uncomfortable with and I thought...

>

> KING: T & A girl.

>

> SOMERS: Yes, T & A. Queen of the jiggle, you know, Chrissie Snow and all

> that, and I thought, how ironic that I would get this. But, it's really

> not. One out of every 8 women in this country is going to get breast

> cancer, and the one thing I can say is early detection.

>

> KING: The people who make fun of this, do you have any thoughts about

them?

>

> SOMERS: I think what -- people who make fun of it don't see you as a

> person. I think they see you as an icon. And so that you're not really

> real. And so they don't realize that behind it are feelings and a real

> human being. It is incredibly hurtful.

>

> I don't think I have ever said anything about anybody that is mean or

> cruel on the air. I can't say that I have never done that in real life

> because I'm imperfect as a human being, but, I have tried not to, but I

> would never, on the air, say anything cruel or -- especially, when you

> don't know what talking about, you know.

>

> KING: So, as of this point, the treatment goes well?

>

> SOMERS: I continue injecting...

>

> KING: Every day.

>

> SOMERS: ... for next five years, and I go for mammograms every three

> months, and we just stay on top of it, and I'll be back before this, but

> in five years I want to come on your show...

>

> KING: Yes you have to give us updates.

>

> SOMERS: Yes, I will give you updates.

>

> KING: Are you nervous when you take every mammogram?

>

> SOMERS: Yes, yes, but, you know, I didn't -- it didn't go -- they removed

> some lymph nodes, it wasn't in my lymph nodes. They, we caught it in time.

> And that's the great thing, and...

>

> KING: Thank god for that machine.

>

> SOMERS: There was another woman that was going through this with me at the

> same time and she had the exact same diagnosis as me, but she had felt the

> lump and didn't do anything about it for seven years, and she is dying

> now. And I realize the difference between her cancer and my cancer was

> that I found it earlier, and I found it because of this machine and these

> great doctors. Dr. Mel Silverstein is an incredible doctor.

>

> KING: Thank you, Suzanne. Thanks for coming forward.

>

> SOMERS: Thank you. Thanks.

>

> Suzanne Somers, when we come back, Joan Rivers.

>

> SOMERS: What a switch.

>

> KING: This is...

>

> SOMERS: Really. KING: You handle this one.

>

> SOMERS: Hold on to your hat.

>

> KING: Don't go away.

>

> (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

>

>