“When I was on 'Baywatch,' it was very in to be very thin with big boobs. I was the opposite, so I was wearing this red bathing suit that was flattening me, the one piece, it just, it was like ... ‘Oh man,’” Nicole Eggert tells Inside Edition.
"Baywatch" star Nicole Eggert spoke out about her battle with breast cancer and shared in an exclusive interview with Inside Edition that doctors had found more cancer in her lymph nodes.
“It's horrible, it's horrible,” Eggert tells Inside Edition.
The 53-year-old actress says she started to notice severe changes in her health three months ago.
“I started noticing really rapid weight gain and fatigue,” Eggert says.
Along with those symptoms, Eggert also started feeling pain in her breast, and that is when she found a large lump.
“When I felt it my heart dropped and I was like ‘Oh my god,’” she says.
The actress’ panic grew worse when she was not able to book an appointment for a mammogram.
“Nobody could take me so I walked into every breast care center like, ‘Please please please,’” Eggert says. “It’s horrifying because every minute in every day that passes you know it’s growing.”
Once she was able to get a mammogram, it was confirmed that Eggert had stage two breast cancer. She was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called invasive cribriform carcinoma, which was harder for Eggert to spot due to scar tissue from her breast implants.
“If I didn’t have them, and I had my smaller, natural breasts, I am sure I would have felt it much sooner,” Eggert says.
At 19, Eggert starred on "Baywatch" alongside the iconic Pamela Anderson, who was getting attention for her figure. Eggert made the decision to get breast implants due to the pressure of being on the show.
“When I was on 'Baywatch,' it was very in to be very thin with big boobs. I was the opposite so I was wearing this red bathing suit that was flattening me, the one piece, it just, it was like ... ‘Oh man,’” Eggert says. “There’s nothing you can do. You can’t stuff it.”
Eggert returned to a new season with breast implants.
Eggert now says that getting breast implants as a young actress may have made the cancer harder to spot.
“Getting them was a huge mistake," Eggert says.
Knowing what she knows now, the 53-year-old actress hopes her story can serve as a cautionary tale on the importance of self-exams.
“Do the self-exams, and don't get those implants,” Eggert says.
A GoFundMe page has been set up for the "Baywatch" star and single mother to help pay for her treatment, which she will begin on Feb 12.
Eggert also hosts a podcast called “Perfectly Twisted,” where she talks about her life as a 90's icon, traveling the world, and being a mother, with a sense of humor.
