Jill Martin she will have surgery after complications from her breast cancer treatment.
“Just when you think the fight is over, life reminds you that healing isn’t always linear,” Martin, 49, shared during the Friday, Jan. 9, episode. today.
Martin revealed that his skin was damaged by radiation therapy and that he is having surgery to repair it. This will be her eighth procedure since her cancer diagnosis in 2023. (Martin previously underwent reconstructive surgery and preventative surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes).
“It’s preemptive and proactive — an emergency only in the sense that if we don’t act now, it could turn into something much bigger,” the TODAY contributor told the network while reiterating that “the cancer is not back.”
According to Martin, he will be in the hospital for at least three nights. He will then recover at home for a few weeks.
“I feel exhausted and grateful at the same time,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like it never ends. And yet, I’m grateful. Grateful for the early action, for the great doctors, and for the opportunity to keep moving forward.”
In July 2023, Martin shared that she had been diagnosed with stage II breast cancer. The journalist also announced that she would undergo a double mastectomy after learning that she has the BRCA 2 gene mutation, which has an increased risk of breast cancer and other cancers in its carriers.
“I’m telling this story now because I couldn’t get through months of surgeries and begin to recover both physically and mentally without shouting from the rooftops telling everyone to check with their doctors to see if genetic testing is appropriate,” she wrote in an essay for the Today website. “As I recover from my first surgery, I hope many of you will know your results and be able to make proactive decisions with your doctors, families and loved ones.”
Four months after revealing his diagnosis, Martin completed his chemotherapy treatment. She documented the moment by sharing a video on social media of her ringing a bell at the hospital.
In October 2024, Martin opened up about how his battle with cancer took a toll on him mentally.
Today’s Jill Martin took fans on the emotional journey of trying on wigs in the midst of her ongoing breast cancer journey. “This is just like me, right? It’s hard,” Martin, 47, said through tears in an Instagram Story video on Wednesday, December 27. “I feel like I could style it. It’s fun, it’s like playing dress-up. I’m (…)
“I have two emotions that normally don’t go together simultaneously,” Martin said exclusively Us Weekly. “I’m very grateful to be cancer free, but on the other hand, I’ve just come out of a year of fog and people look at me and think I look like myself. To me, I look totally different and my body is totally different.”
Martin continued: “I’ve spent the last year trying to save my life. And now I’m dealing with the mental trauma of it all. And I think a lot of survivors will tell you it’s never over. It’s not like, ‘When are you done?’ or ‘Is it over?’ It never ends. This is a fight I will fight for the rest of my life. I think about chemotherapy every day.”
In the midst of her battle with cancer, Martin also separated from her husband Erik Brookswho filed for divorce in July 2024.
“I had a beautiful love story, but like some stories, unfortunately, they have a beginning, middle and end,” she said of her divorce on an October 2024 episode of the “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” podcast. “And we both put a stop to it this time. So, if everything was great, we’d get married. So, obviously, there were problems.”