Jeff Bridges Says Tumor Has Shrunk: ‘Cancer Was Nothing Compared To COVID’

Jeff Bridges revealed that he initially became aware of his health challenges while he was engaging in a workout session, but he wasn’t certain about his diagnosis. “I was doing some exercises while on the ground and felt what seemed like a bone in my stomach. I thought to myself, Hmm. But it didn’t hurt or anything,” he admitted. “I asked Sue what she thought. She said: ‘I don’t know, but you’ve got to get it checked out.'”

The 73-year-old explained that the observation eventually led to the discovery of his early cancer diagnosis and set him on the path to treatment and recovery despite initial hesitation. “I’m hiking and feeling great. My shins really itch, and I think, ‘Oh, I just got, you know, dry skin.’ Then I had night sweats, but thought, ‘That’s just hot summer nights.’ It turns out those are lymphoma symptoms. I was doing those fight scenes for the first episode of ‘The Old Man’ and didn’t know that I had a 9-by-12-inch tumor in my body,” Bridges confessed. “You’d think that would have hurt or something when they were punching me and stuff. It didn’t.”

Covid worsened his cancer diagnosis

In 2020, the 73-year-old revealed officially that he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown while he was on a break from filming The Old Man. In a recent interview with AARP magazine, Jeff Bridges opened up about his health struggles with cancer, and he is delighted to announce that his tumor has reduced to “the size of a small marble” despite battling COVID-19.

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Bridges revealed that he contracted COVID-19 in January 2021 when vaccines were not yet widely accessible, and this took a toll on his health. The actor shared that he had a close brush with death as a result of the virus because he was undergoing chemotherapy treatments, which had weakened his immune system. “For me,” he told the outlet, “cancer was nothing compared to the COVID.”

Bridges further expressed his admiration for his wife, who stood by him all through the time of his illness. “My wife Sue was my absolute champion,” he confessed. “She really fought to keep me off a ventilator. I didn’t want to be on it, and the doctors didn’t necessarily want that. But Sue was adamant.”