Suzanne Rogers, the iconic figure from the beloved soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” is courageously speaking about her recent colon cancer diagnosis. At 82, Rogers has been a fixture on the show for over five decades, and she is now candidly sharing her health journey in a recent interview.
In the interview, Rogers explained that her path to diagnosis began when she sensed something was off earlier this summer. Trusting her instincts, she reached out to her doctor, who promptly suggested a series of tests to get to the root of the issue.
“He told me, ‘I want you to have an MRI, a PET scan, and a biopsy,'” Rogers recounted to TV Insider. “Hearing those words, I immediately realized that this was serious.”
After undergoing these thorough examinations, the Daytime Emmy-winning actress received the startling news: she had been diagnosed with stage II colorectal cancer. The revelation was unexpected for Rogers, who had always taken pride in maintaining her health.
“I was in shock for several days,” she admitted. “I take pretty good care of myself, but my doctor assured me it was fortunate we caught it when we did.”
“I think I was in a shock for several days because I take pretty good care of myself,” she shared. “But [my doctor] said, ‘It’s a good thing you caught it in time.’”
Rogers waited to finish shooting “Days of Our Lives” in June and then immediately began treatment, including having radiation and chemo on the majority of days the soap was on summer hiatus.
“It was tough knowing you had to do it five days a week and then you had off Saturday and Sunday,” she said. “I thoroughly enjoyed my weekends because I didn’t have to go and see a doctor. I was so tired of seeing doctors.”
With no family in the L.A. area, Rogers said she turned to her co-stars for support —- particularly Linsey Godfrey, who plays her onscreen daughter and is herself a cancer survivor.
“I had to have an infusion, and it takes about an hour and a half, so Linsey sat there with me and held my hand while I was having it,” Rogers confided. “We really feel like a family.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Suzanne Rogers at the Daytime Emmy Awards in 2022. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
By late July, The “Knight Rider” alum completed her treatment. She’s now looking forward to getting back into character as Maggie Horton — the role she’s played since 1973, making her both the longest-running actor in American daytime drama history.
“I start back to work next week, so we’ll see how that goes,” she told TV Insider about returning to the NBC/Peacock series. “I’m feeling anxious like I do any time I get scripts because I want to do my very best and you don’t want to hold up anybody. So that’s the only anxiousness I feel. It’s not because of my illness.”
