Cheri Oteri says a recent night out ended up changing much more than her social calendar. On Chelsea Handler’s Dear Chelsea podcast, the 63-year-old former SNL star revealed she was recently diagnosed with DCIS, a very early, noninvasive form of breast cancer. Oteri said she’d just gotten the news when she attended a Milken Institute dinner in April and struck up a conversation with former first lady Jill Biden, then decided to tell her about the diagnosis and upcoming surgery as they were leaving, People reports.
Oteri recalls Biden responding, “I’m going through this with you,” and then following through with texts, calls, and a long coffee meetup in Los Angeles. “We just talked for two hours, and she was just, that is a woman with a huge heart, and through everything, she’s like checking on me and just a beautiful human being. I’ve never felt so supported,” the Scary Movie star said. Oteri said Biden told her, ‘You’re gonna get sick of me texting you,’ and I’m like, ‘Seriously, Jill, knock it off.'”
Oteri told Handler that she had a second lumpectomy days before the podcast appearance because not all of the cancer was removed initially, but she said she was doing “great,” Page Six reports. She said the cancer was caught early and urged listeners to get their mammograms. She also said women in her position should seek out second opinions, telling Handler that her first doctor advised unnecessarily aggressive treatment.