Kathy Griffin has been out of the spotlight for the last few years. Some of this, of course, is due to the scandal and fallout of the incident where she was photographed with a prop of Donald Trump’s severed head. More recently, though, she had to deal with something scarier: a cancer diagnosis.
She was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2021. Fortunately, she was able to seek cancer treatment and is now living cancer-free. Unfortunately, the treatment may have permanently affected both her body and her career.
How has Griffin been affected by her cancer treatment? And how has it changed her perspective on her life and the lives of others? Let’s find out!
Her voice may be permanently affected
We got an update from Kathy Griffin herself when she appeared on the September 20 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. There, she revealed that “they took out half my left lung, and so my voice got some damage.” Ever the comedian, she was quick to clarify that “”I am fine, it doesn’t hurt, and the important thing is my boobs are still fabulous.”
While Griffin played the appearance lightly, some of what she said was nonetheless very concerning. For example, her voice may never be the same after the cancer treatment. This could permanently affect her career, but Griffin says she’s not too worried. “I think I sound non-threatening and demure. That’s my new angle,” she said.
The road to recovery
Kathy Griffin has always been lighthearted, so it may be no surprise that she is something of an optimist. And she has applied that optimism to how she views her current road to recovery after getting cancer treatment.
As reported by E! Online, she appeared recently at the Cool Comedy, Hot Cuisine: A tribute to Bob Saget event. “I’m working on my voice to get it better, keeping my fingers crossed, but it used to be even worse than this,” she said. “At least now I can be heard, it was like a whisper for six months.”
A good mentality plays a big role in recovery. And we’re happy to see that Griffin has such a positive mindset when it comes to recovering her iconic voice.
The COVID connection
Back when Griffin announced her diagnosis, more fans were paying close attention to her than they had in recent years. And she used the unexpected opportunity to speak about something that is very important to her: people getting COVID-19 vaccinations.
As Newsweek reports, she spoke very bluntly about how getting the vaccine helped her take control of her own health, even partially. “Of course I am fully vaccinated for COVID. The consequences for being unvaccinated would have been even more serious. Please stay up to date on your medical check ups. It’ll save your life.”
While she kept it very casual, Griffin is quite right that regular medical check ups are just as important as COVID vaccinations. If she didn’t have regular check-ups, she may not have known about having lung cancer until it was too late to do anything!
Unconventional thoughts on cancel culture
It’s almost impossible to discuss Kathy Griffin without discussing the incident where she posed with a prop of Donald Trump’s severed head. This had an immediate and lasting negative impact on her career. Interestingly, the idea of “cancel culture” has become more repugnant to the same conservatives who wanted Griffin’s career to suffer, and she recently spoke out about that matter.
As reported by People, she has very specific thoughts on the matter. “I wasn’t canceled,” Griffin said. “I was erased.” This is a fair summary. While many people who claim to have been “canceled” actually leverage that into making big bucks, Griffin and her career might as well have dropped off the face of the earth. And now, she must get her career back on track at the same time she focuses on recovering from cancer.
Kathy Griffin revealed if Monica Lewinsky voted for Trump or Clinton
When Griffin appeared recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live, she didn’t just dish about her cancer recovery. She also had the answer to a very unconventional question: during the 2016 election, did Monica Lewinsky vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?
The way she got the answer was simple: by inviting Monica Lewinsky to one of the parties that Griffin likes to throw. These parties have a mixture of celebs and other guests, and Griffin ended up sitting Lewinsky next to “a bunch of really smart people and journalists.”
Eventually, Griffin asked Lewinsky point-blank who she voted for (a question, wildly enough, nobody had ever posed to Lewinsky). “She did [vote for Clinton],” Griffin said. “She said, ‘I couldn’t let my own issues get in the way. I couldn’t vote for Trump. So yes, of course, I voted for Hillary.'”
In choosing what she saw as her civic duty over personal grudges, Lewinsky became an inspiration to us all. And with fun stories like this, we wish Griffin a speedy recovery so she can do what she does best: shaking up the world of both Hollywood and politics!